Early tomorrow evening is going to be bittersweet as an Australian Wrestling fan. PWA Black Label has assembled one of the best cards in Australian professional wrestling, period. But we will also be farewelling two fantastic members of the Australian professional wrestling’s ranks (albeit it for fantastic reasons) in the form of Jonah Rock and Diego Retamales. Both Jonah and Diego are chasing their dreams overseas and I along with everyone wish them all the best and hope they achieve all they set out to do, but do forgive me if I get a little teary at the thought of saying goodbye. Enough being sappy for the moment, let’s have a look at this tremendous card and what we we might expect from PWA (or maybe just how wrong I am when it comes to predictions) in what might just be its biggest year yet.

Matty Wahlberg vs Jimmy Havoc

If you talk about 2018 in Australian professional wrestling and you come anywhere near New South Wales, you have to mention Matty Wahlberg in the conversation for wrestler of the year. In fact he received that prestigious honour from almost all of the promotions he worked for. Why? Because he brought it. He brought it on the microphone, he brought it with his look and most importantly he brought it in the ring. He held major titles in almost all the organisations he worked for in 2018, however PWA’s title has alluded him. For now… 2019 appears to be the next step in his plan for national domination and the PWA Championship will play a huge part in him achieving this goal. But he is going to have to take on the best on offer to get there. And the first wrestler he meets in PWA this year will bring with him an incredible challenge in Jimmy Havoc and a no disqualification match. Jimmy Havoc is synonymous with no disqualification, hardcore and death matches, winning CZW’s tournament of death XVI along with holding the defiant hardcore championship. The King of Goths has bled far more than most and has even had his own blood used by Spike Trivet in the name of the art. The point is Jimmy is willing to put it all on the line and that is what scares most of his opponents, but if Matty Wahlberg’s INCREDIBLE promo is anything to go by, he is unafraid and is actually revelling in the opportunity to “Bully” Jimmy Havoc. This will be a fantastic match, that will show off the versatility of Wahlberg and in this writer’s opinion, put him within striking distance of the PWA championship after he the victory over Havoc here.

When Diego announced this event at the conclusion of Friday’s are for the BABES (A fantastic event available on PWAPLAY.com) during the kerfuffle involving the number one contenders and the current tag team champions (and Colosseum tournament finalists), this was the first match announced. Jack J Bonza and Mick Moretti had defeated their high level opponents in Paris De Silva and Unsocial Jordan and already had eyes on the Colosseum tournament final at the Fight for Black Metal event. But number one contenders Juan Direction had been impatiently waiting and were unable to waiting any longer, demanding their match occur instead of the Colosseum final! Thankfully there was one event before the final and the Four Nations stablemates have to put the tournament final preparations on hold for now to battle the hungry number one contenders. Juan Direction are a highly entertaining tag team (or stable) who are often written off, but it is always done at that person’s downfall. They are as crafty as they are entertaining, taking advantage of each and every opportunity gifted to them, pulling the old switch-a-roo when the referee and their opponents have been occupied on more than one occasion. They had to defeat the physically gifted BABES to get here, so you know they are more than deserving of being in this position. BUT. They are taking on a highly efficient and effective tag team in Jack J Bonza and Mick Moretti, with both men proving time and time again whether it be in singles competition or as one of the many combinations of the Four Nations in tag team action, they are the best wrestlers in Australia and if you do have any doubts in this regard, you simply need to look at their resume, defeating Moustache Mountain (Tyler Bate and Trent Seven) followed by victories in two mesmerising contests again the Velocities just last year (again both available on PWAplay.com). A lot of people are predicting shenanigans in this match and the Four Nations falling to Juan Direction due to the two colosseum finalists being unable to work together with the prize of the beautiful “Black Metal” on their mind (and the title of best grappler in Australia of course). Despite hints that this might be the case with the pair having some heated interactions as of late, you cannot discount the cohesiveness of this unit and the focus that the Four Nations members bring to each and everyone of their contests often outwitting the most craftiest of opponents (take Moretti with Unsocial Jordan). I am looking for the Four Nations to retain here, with a potential dream battle with Mikey Broderick and TMDK on the cards once the Colosseum tournament is in the rear view mirror.

Prediction: Jack J Bonza and Mick Moretti

Shazza McKenzie vs Tree Hugger Luchi

Shazza McKenzie would feel extremely motivated heading to this match I am sure. In a back stage moment involving PWA champion Caveman Ugg and PWA tag champions Mick Moretti and most notably Jack J Bonza, Shazza McKenzie’s PWWA championship and therefore her championship credentials was played down due to restriction of the PWWA championship, the lack of credible challengers for said championship and the fact that ANY wrestler can challenge for the PWA championship and PWA Tag Team Championships. Jack J Bonza stated that until Shazza wins that PWA championship, she cannot be referred to as a true champion of PWA. These words no doubt will have lit a fire inside Shazza McKenzie who after hanging with Caveman Ugg in their 5 way encounter at Fridays are for the BABES, will be looking to get a match with Ugg with the title on the line. The first step to getting there is stringing some wins together and her first opportunity to get a win will be against Tree Hugger Luchi. Luchi has not had the greatest deal of success as of the late and his biggest motivation at this point appears to be cleaning up the PWA which he seems to believe will be achieved through beating out rival Big Fudge to the new position of sanitation commissioner (with an election date to be announced soon!). But perhaps I am looking at this the wrong way. Maybe Luchi knows how important the win is here to his campaign and will stop at nothing to win. This is an intriguing match and I look for Shazza’s ChocBlockers partner Big Fudge to get involved here, potentially costing Shazza the win this time.

Winner: Tree Hugger Luchi

Full Force Mat Rogers vs Kai Drake

I rate Kai Drake. I really do and predict big things in the future for the Dragon heart. But Full Force Mat Rogers is a scary man who wipes out anybody that gets in his way. Kai Drake stood and traded bombs with Caveman Ugg which was super impressive and I don’t expect him to back down against Mat Rogers either. However I just think Mat Rogers will be too much for Kai Drake on this evening and Mat Rogers will get the win. I am expecting another Velocities recruitment attempt as they have been looking for the size and power to go with their speed and high flying prowess or perhaps Concrete Davidson as mentioned on the B Plus Podcast will try and recruit Concrete Davidson to the Black Shirt Cool Group (don’t change the name Conco!). Or perhaps they see the potential in Dragonheart? Time will tell.

Prediction: Full Force Mat Rogers

Gavin McGavin vs Paris De Silva vs Adam Hoffman vs Jax Jordan

EPW Champion Gavin McGavin brings the Gavin vs Australia tour to Max Watts tomorrow night and has been placed into a very interesting fatal four way, featuring one of PWA’s most talked about top prospects, one of it’s hard nosed experienced veterans and a wrestler who is looking to regroup and rebuild in 2019 in Jax Jordan. Let me tell you this match is far more important than it may seem on paper. Each person needs this win and will be doing all in their power to get it. Gavin is out to prove he is the best in Australia and the real wrestler is certainly on the path to proving that, with a win here against a highly regarded prospect, one of NSW’s most experienced and best and a hungry young lion (see what I did there), going a long way to helping him conquer the NSW part. But it is easier said than done. Paris De Silva is in a bit of a predicament after falling to Jack J Bonza in the colosseum tournament. There is no doubt of the talent and heart of this young man, but much like his Velocities teammates Jude ‘The Dude’ London and Mat Diamond, he has not been able to win the big one. He too needs this win to get himself back on the horse and headed back towards the PWA championship picture and a win over Gavin McGavin certainly puts him well and truly there. Adam Hoffman would still be smarting from his last title match with Caveman Ugg and I’m sure he would love the opportunity to have another shot at the PWA gold and prove that with the right preparation and not having a battle royale beforehand, he could defeat the Caveman champion. Jax Jordan after falling to Matty Wahlberg at Friday’s are for the BABES was absolutely shattered as he headed to the back, questioning with PWA’s Heather whether he was enough, whether this was for him. Well it is 2019 and effectively is a clean slate for the Party Boy. If he can get the win here, this would provide a monumental boost in his confidence and might just be the high he is looking for to get himself back on track. The man has the talent, he just lacks the confidence. This one for me is particularly tough to pick (all the matches are tough though to be fair - look how many I got wrong last time), as all in the match have strong motivations heading into this one. SO I’m going to roll the dice and go with Jax Jordan for this bout and will get a huge win that might give the man a reason to hit the clubs post show (or at least have a smile on his face).

Prediction - Jax Jordan

Jonah Rock vs Robbie Eagles vs Adam Brooks.

Wow. When this match was announced it blew my mind and as I right this I can feel the butterflies in my stomach. The “G3” (as they have been calling themselves) all together in a triple threat match. Jonah’s final NSW appearance. Robbie Eagles on a tear at the moment. The GLOAT recently holding the MCW Inter-Commonwealth title again. These three wrestlers are at the peak of their powers and on paper this is a contender for match of the year in January. Each of them on their day, wins this match. the only advantage I see is that PWA is Robbie Eagles’ home promotion. Sorry AJ Styles, but PWA is Robbie Eagles house and that might just be the edge that gives Robbie Eagles the win over the GLOAT and the King of Monsters. You don’t need me to rattle off the credentials of these three men. You don’t even need me to hype this contest up. You just need to turn up and cheer the house down for three of the greatest wrestlers in Australian professional wrestling history. If you are not there and you could have been, you are bloody well mad.

Prediction - Robbie Eagles

Before I finish this article and implore you to buy the remaining tickets and sell the joint out, I just wanted to touch on a few things:

Diego Retamales - Diego thank you so much for all the enjoyment you have given me watching PWA. Your banter, your enthusiasm and your dance moves are just a few of the reasons you are so beloved by the PWA community as a whole. I will miss not being able to see you ride the wave of the live shows and checking out your reactions to see if you were as impressed or gobsmacked as me, but who knows maybe I see you pop up on a TV Show, Film or in a hell even in a wrestling ring in the future. Best of Luck for the next stage in your life and if you have as much passion for it as you do for Wrestling, I have no doubt it/you will be a resounding success.

Jonah Rock - I could not be happier for you as you chase your dreams and I am sure you will be a roaring success. The whole world needs to see how devastating your diet of chops, lariats and brain busters can be to the health of your opponents and if the rumours are true, they won’t have to wait long at all. Long live the King of Monsters and I am glad I get to hear you come out to Death Grips “Guillotine” one last time at Max Watt’s and put my claw up with you!

Madison Eagles - Madison was scheduled to compete against Michael Spencer at this event in a no rope breaks match, but unfortunately will be unable to due to nagging injuries that need her attention. I like everyone else in the Australian wrestling community wish her all the best with her recovery and look forward to seeing her at her devastating best when the time is right. Take care Madison.

So there you have it, my preview of a wonderful card that has been put together by the team at PWA and I think it is safe to say that tomorrow night is going to kick off an incredible year for PWA Black Label, arguably the best promotion in Australia right now. If you have not got a ticket yet, you need to get one and be there and whilst only mezzanine spots remain, PWA themselves recommend the location as the best spot in the venue to watch their events and hey isn’t the dress circle the best place to watch the opera as opposed to the stalls? Come say good bye to Diego and Jonah and hello to PWA’s biggest year yet!

Consumers of Professional Wrestling! Welcome to the written companion to the very first episode of Receipt Radio, which is titled NSW Newswire 1. The goal of this episode and those titled NSW Newswire going forward is to promote news, events or anything else newsworthy from each of the promotions in the NSW professional wrestling scene. I wanted to create a place that was as comprehensive as possible for all the goings on in NSW professional wrestling, so my mission will be to make NSW Newswire that place.

The written portion of my wrestling coverage is the Potato portion of the Potato and Receipt equation and the Receipt will be the Podcast section, hence the name Receipt Radio. I did however want to create a written companion to go along with episodes, as I want to provide a lot of information to you, so it is best to provide a written reference point to return to where I can also provide links to websites, ticket information or anything else I reference. So as I did in the Podcast, I will go promotion by promotion, and cover what is going on in each promotion, along with links to further information.

World Series Wrestling

World Series Wrestling or WSW have announced their Defend and Destroy tour for March 2019, which will actually see two dates in Sydney for this particular tour with Sunday March 10 at Hurstville Entertainment Centre and Monday March 11 at Penrith Panthers Evans Theatre. There is a plethora of international talent announced for this tour including Flip Gordon, Brian Cage, Brody King, Marty Scurll, Austin Aries, Scorpio Sky, Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian and Jordynne Grace. These talents are al doing incredible things at the moment, but the one talent that this analyst is most looking forward to seeing is the reigning and defending World Series Wrestling Champion, the hottest export in Australian wrestling right now, Bullet Club OG member and “The Sniper of the Skies” Robbie Eagles. There is plenty of exciting NSW based talent and I am hoping that as there will be two shows in Sydney, hopefully the WSW audience will be exposed to more of the amazing talent who actually work in the great state of New South Wales! There is some potential for some very special matches if the likes of Jack J Bonza, Mick Moretti, Shazza McKenzie or even Madison Eagles and Matty Wahlberg are included. I did have my concerns on behalf of WSW having two Sydney shows as it might split their audience, however those have been easily quashed as the tickets for all the World Series Wrestling shows are selling like Ice Cream on a hot day. 50% of tickets for the Hurstville show had been sold as of Boxing Day, whilst only Bronze remained for the Penrith Panthers show. So the message here is, if you haven’t got your tickets yet, get them now at www.worldserieswrestling.com . If you leave it any longer, you may be left disappointed so get onto it!

Suplex Pro Wrestling

Suplex is one of NSW’s newest promotions and they have an event Saturday January 5 at East Cessnock Bowling Club, when they present Chapter Six in their promotion’s story titled “Validation”. Tickets for this event are available via Moshtix

It is a collection of young talent from around the NSW professional wrestling scene, with wrestlers who have appeared previous at AWF, Wrestling Go, Newcastle Pro Wrestling, Future Wrestling Australia, Hunter Valley Wrestling and more appearing on Suplex wrestling cards. Suplex is a promotion on the rise and is doing good things in the Hunter Region so get out and support what they are doing for NSW professional wrestling.

Hunter Valley Wrestling

Hunter Valley Wrestling are putting on a huge show Saturday 19th January at Club Maitland City titled “Ready 2 Rumble”, headlined by a massive Hunter Valley Wrestling championship match between Alex Titan and popular wrestling superstar, the Jaystick himself JXT. Other announcements include Izzy vs Jasmin for the Hunter Valley Wrestling Women’s championship along with a 30 person rumble (That can include anyone!) with Keegan Brettle, The Misfit, Djaysonic, Mr Mortis and Jengis Kong all announced to take part in a match that is popular with so many, a good ol’ fashioned rumble! Tickets for this show are available via Moshtix

Hunter Valley Wrestling also made the massive announcement that the first EPW Grand Slam Champion and the reigning EPW Champion Gavin McGavin will be appearing at Hunter Valley Wrestling on Saturday March 23rd as a part of his Gavin vs Australia tour. Tickets for this event will be available at a later date, but what a coup for Hunter Valley Wrestling to have Gavin McGavin grace HVW with his presence. It will be a hug opportunity for someone to face him and I can’t wait to see who the brass at Hunter Valley Wrestling match him up with.

Newcastle Pro Wrestling

Newcastle Pro Wrestling or affectionately known as ‘Newy Pro’ have three events on three consecutive Saturdays in January, providing plenty of entertainment for the whole family, with superstars from the hugely hyped PWA shows also appearing on Newcastle Pro Wrestling, so you know you will certainly get bang for your buck. First of the three events is on January 5 at Central Coast Leagues which features bouts such as Four Nations vs Juan Direction, Michael Spencer vs Jude ‘The Dude’ London, Concrete Davidson vs Newy Pro Middleweight champion Matty Wahlberg and Tyler Payne taking on Newy Pro’s heavyweight Champion Jackson Kelly. January 12’s event is at Club Maitland City and is titled Four Nations vs BABES, so it is safe to say we can see some incarnations of those teams battling it out for supremacy. Jack J Bonza, Adam Hoffman, Matty Wahlberg, Headhunter Rig and Dazza are all scheduled to appear at this event. Finally on January 19th at the Charlestown Bowling Club, Newy Pro 75 arrives with a huge steel cage main event between the former Newcastle Pro Wrestling Heavyweight champion ‘Full Force’ Mat Rogers, going one on one with his nemesis, the current Manly Pro Wrestling sorry Newcastle Pro Wrestling Heavyweight Champion, the ‘Beach Bum Booter’ Jackson Kelly. Three big shows with tickets for all of them available via Newcastle Pro Wrestling’s website. I recommend purchasing tickets beforehand to avoid disappointment at the door. Whilst I am on the subject of Newy Pro, I encourage you to head over to PWAPLAY.com and check out the Newcastle Pro Wrestling Anniversary and Halloween show which is up as part of the subscription to their service, or available as a rental. It is a great event from one of NSW’s premier promotions and features great contests such as Jack J Bonza vs Big Fudge (which brought the Same Same story to a head) and Mick Moretti vs Ricky South in a brutal match with an ‘I Quit’ stipulation.

All Star Wrestling Australia

All Star Wrestling have announced their first show for 2019 with a return to the Koonawarra community centre on January 12th 2019. The card for the event is shaping up as follows:

Dan Archer Vs Keegan Brettle W/ Jasmin - Keegan Brettle making his debut for the promotionTickets for this event are available at All Star Wresting Australia’s website. Great to see wrestling available for fans of the art down in the Illawarra, so get out and support it! All Star Wrestling have also announced an event on February 23rd titled ‘Steel City Showdown’ at Illawarra Leagues Club. At the event, they will be joining forces with Queensland’s Ringside Addiction promotion to put on a match for the Ringside Addiction title which will feature Singapore Export Alex Cuevas taking on one of the local All Star Wrestling Australia competitors. Once again hit the link above to get more information about tickets.

Blue Mountains Pro Wrestling

After a multiple year absence, Blue Mountains Pro Wrestling has announced it will be returning in 2019 featuring shows in Oberon on February 9, then a double header at Ironfest in Lithgow on April 27 and 28. I am sure more details will be announced soon but it is superb to see more professional wrestling available in regional areas and I look forward to providing more information to you pending availability. I also recommend giving them a like on Facebook, so you can get all the information first hand.

International Wrestling Australia (IWA)

Speaking of wrestling in regional areas, one of the biggest supporters of this is the longest running promotion in NSW professional wrestling and that is IWA. They are certainly not taking a long summer holiday with several events to kick off 2019 with some in areas not privy to regular professional wrestling shows. Their Summer Meltdown tour, is hitting South West Rocks Country Club on January 9, Port Panthers on January 10, Club Forster on January 11, Satwell RSL on January 12 and the Lithgow Workies club on January 18th, which is fantastic. This is followed up with Sydney based events at St John’s Bowling Club on Saturday January 19, Hornsby RSL on Friday February 8, Dee Why RSL on Saturday February 9 and they are bringing wrestling back to the Sutherland Shire with an event at Engadine Tavern on Saturday 23rd February showing that even though they are over 20 years old, they have no plans to slow down! Links to tickets for each of their dates can be found at the IWA website. IWA also announced exciting news that they have an official on demand platform at IWAREWIND.com. IWA Fighting Spirit 1, 2 and 3 are the first three events available on the service and with a vault of 20 years worth of events, it is exciting to think what might end up on the service.

Australasian Wrestling Federation (AWF)

AWF have announced their initial schedule for the first half of 2019, their 20th Anniversary year. This features their first event of the year on Australia Day at Mothership Studios in Marrickville and events at Penrith PCYC on February 9, Blacktown Bowman Hall on March 1, Parramatta RSL on April 20 and the AWF 20th Anniversay event on Friday July 12. Tickets for these events are available on AWF’s website. AWF will be looking to have big year to celebrate a huge milestone for the promotion. TNT will be out and about, passionate as ever with his team, so if you are an AWF fan, get out to the shows and support them and help celebrate this big achievement. AWF also announced their 2018 awards with the winners as follows:

Most Improved - Goran Nikolov

Future Prospect - Cedric Brave

Fan Favourite - TNT

Rule Breaker - Liam Rudge

Match of the Year - TNT vs The Misfit - 4th August 2018, Penrith PCYC

Tag Team of the Year - DNA - Djaysonic and Albie

Wrestler of the Year - The Misfit

Congratulations to them all.

Still with AWF, Kieran ‘The Duke’ Burns had his last event as ring announcer for AWF Wrestling after almost twenty years in the role. It is an incredible tenure, so congratulations and a thank you are in order for your service to professional wrestling in both Australia and Overseas. Good luck and best wishes for whatever you do next.

Australian Wrestling Entertainment (AWE)

AWE announced their winner for the fan voted match of the year with Mr Exclusive and Vinnie Vain given the nod for their career vs career match from June 2018 Contender’s Cup event. AWE also announced that Vinnie Vain was in negotiations to receive a championship opportunity in 2019 with a rivalry with AWE Champion Psykotic the driving force. AWE described the potential match as being a year in the making.

Vulcan Championship Wrestling (VCW)

VCW unveiled their new VCW Australian championship which has a great look and can be found on their facebook page via a photoshoot featuring VCW wrestlers and former gladiator Vulcan himself. They will crown their first ever VCW Australian Champion at their event on February 9th at the Mytilenian House in Canterbury with tickets available soon with information available at Vulcan Championship Wrestling’s website of Facebook Page

VCW also had a bit of fun with their christmas post to fans, advertising a fake christmas album as the perfect gift. The aptly titled ‘Season’s Beatings’ featured classic Christmas song titles modified to include the wrestlers and wrestling related terms. Examples of the songs in the track listing included “Vulcan is coming to town”, “Suplex Baby” and “Rockin’ Around the Greek Express”. I thought it was quite a fun and creative post for the holidays so well done to VCW on that one.

Future Wrestling Australia

Future Wrestling Australia have announced their first show of 2019 with the perfectly titled: ‘Rise of the Future’ Future Wrestling Australia continue their knack of bringing out International talent with IMPACT Star Eli Drake vs Tuff Stuff Ricky South. The man who had one of the best 2018s in this analyst’s opinion FWA Champion Matty Wahlberg is challenged by up and coming sensation Sam Osborne. FWA Women’s champion Savannah Summers will have her work cut out for her, wrestling Tarlee, Xena and Kingsley who will all be trying to take the strap. If that’s not enough to whet your appetite the show also features Big Fudge, Jude London, 5 Star Flash, Jasmin and Debauchery….Oh and Australian wrestling star JXT! The show is stacked with talent, so get out and support FWA with tickets available via Moshtix. Future Wrestling Australia have a great roster of young talent who they always compliment well with experienced Australian talent and even regarded international talent as well. Definitely worth checking out a show if you haven’t already.

Wrestling GO

Wrestling GO Swansong occurs on Friday 18/1/19 at the spiritual home of the promotion, the Marayong community centre with doors opening at 6:30 pm for a 7:00pm start. Show poster features Jessica Troy, Massive Q, Azalea and Diego Retamales in what will be his final match for the promotion. Announced matches include Big Fudge taking on Matty Wahlberg and the EPW champion Gavin McGavin taking on ‘Tuff Stuff’ Ricky South in what will be a hell of an interstate challenge! Then on Saturday March 2nd 2019, Wrestling GO presents “You Go Girls!” again from the Marayong Community Centre. It will be Wrestling GO’s first show entirely devoted to Women’s professional wrestling. It will feature former five time Women’s champion and WWE superstar Melina, 2011’s PWI #1 Women’s Wrestler of the Year, the Master of Wrestling Madison Eagles, Jessica Troy, Shazza McKenzie, Azalea, Facebrooke as well as Candy Lee, who I am excited to see on our shores. Candy has a wonderful story, so I implore you to check that story out via Bronco Busters, the fantastic short doc Candy’s Crush or episode one of Glen Joseph’s podcast ‘Life Unplugged’. As of Thursday 27/12, both events front rows had almost sold out! Tickets are available via Eventbrite here and here. Wrestling GO’s fan voted awards for 2018 were as follows:

International Guest - Dalton Castle

Event of the Year - Halloween Episode

Tag Team of the Year - The Plastics aka Jason Dewhurst and Nikki Van Blair

Congratulations to all those wrestlers for a great 2018. Speaking of Matty Wahlberg and Ricky South, they along with Wrestling GO gave us the best Christmas Present we got this year when they posted the fantastic thirty minute Ironman match for the Wrestling GO silver medal for FREE on Youtube. Sit back and enjoy two of the best and brightest go toe to toe in a classic match.

Pro Wrestling Australia (PWA)

PWA’s next event sees a slight break in the colosseum tournament programming when PWA Black Label presents Diego’s last show featuring Jimmy Havoc and as the name suggests it is Diego’s last show, who has done a remarkable job as the MC, the hype man, the ring announcer for PWA and will be sorely missed. The event will also feature hardcore legend Jimmy Havoc, who will face off against Matty Wahlberg in a no DQ match, Madison Eagles will face off against Michael Spencer in a No Rope Breaks Match, Jonah Rock returns to PWA and the PWA Tag Team titles will be defended when number one contenders Juan Direction battle the two colosseum finalists, the PWA tag team champions and four nations stable mates Jack J Bonza and Mick Moretti. Front row is sold out but good spots are still available including PWA’s recommended including PWA’s recommended viewing location, the mezzanine. Tickets are available on Max Watts website. This is before the grand conclusion to the Colosseum tournament ‘The Fight for Back Metal’ previously announced for February 9 which will see tag team partners Jack J Bonza and Mick Moretti fight for all the marbles and and awesome looking sword! Tickets for that one are not on sale yet.

So there you have it , there is a lot of wrestling in NSW to kick off 2019 in what should be another wonderful year of professional wrestling. I am going to endeavour to podcast and write about the NSW scene as much as possible and I would like to interview anyone related to wrestling in NSW in both written interviews abd podcasts and maybe even video in the future. This can be bloggers, podcasters, journos, writers, wrestlers, managers, ring announcers, staff, referees, promoters, photographers or anyone else involved . If you would like to collaborate, hit my up on my socials and lets work together!

Friday December 7 I attended the rager thrown by BABES at Max Watts Sydney when PWA Black Label Presented:Friday’s are for the BABES. It was a fantastic evening filled with fun, laughter and some of the highest quality professional wrestling you will find. I had a front row seat to the action so please find my recap and review for your reading pleasure below. If you do not want spoilers and wish to wait until the event is available on PWAplay.com, then do not read any further as the beyond this paragraph, it is rife with spoilers.

I sat in my chosen seat and browsed the Max Watts room and was very impressed with the massive amount of effort that had gone into making this show meet the theme. The stage was decorated with those iconic red solo cups, with them on both the commentary desk and the set up beer pong table, stacked into the shape of pyramids. We also had inflatable pools, pool related items and people who partied way to hard in the prefects Jimmy and Billy. Jimmy was tied to the corner post of the ring closest to the bar with a note that basically read that he was a little bitch and shouldn’t have touched Wahlberg’s cups. Fair enough I say. Billy on the other hand appeared to have passed out on one of the pool related inflatables I had mentioned possibly drinking way too much of the Midori and the Malibu within his grasp on the beer pong table (I certainly hope no RSA inspectors were in attendance!). The ring had a new attire which looked immaculate and there was a video screen fixed to the wall to play entrance videos and to play the stunning video promos created by PWA for the colosseum semi finals to build further hype for an event already surrounded by plenty of buzz. Like curtains on either side of the stage were the beautiful banners showing the final four competitors in the Colosseum tournament: Mick Moretti, Unsocial Jordan Paris De Silva and Jack J Bonza.

Following a powerful introduction video with some of the highlights of a fantastic period for PWA Black Label, the music of Missy Elliot hits our ears. “Lose Control” plays and we are treated to two cheerleaders and a person dressed as a giant Solo Cup, complete with oversized ping pong ball. They perform a routine, before the familiar music of BABES hits to a huge pop from the crowd. It must be stated that this crowd was very hot, with many brining banners which had been draped over the mezzanine rails reading “Bonza is a Ranga” and “Jax Jordan pays for Tinder”. Matty Wahlberg, Carter Deams and Harley Wonderland hit the ring, but not before Wahlberg kicks the passed out Billy and orders security to have he and Jimmy removed for being underage. Carter Deams was carrying a gift bag, which as it turns out was a BABES starter pack for ring announcer Diego, who gave us the depressing news that the January show would be his last at PWA Black Label. The starter pack contained a blonde wig, a Matty Wahlberg 21 Celtics jersey and a Red Solo cup, similar to the ones all the fans were handed on arrival to the venue. It is revealed that the person dressed as the solo cup is none other the Concrete Davidson or now known as Concrete Babe-idson, who on Facebook stated that he no longer wanted to be a lone wolf and that one team would be getting a new member at this event. BABES basically agreed it wasn’t going to work and Harley Wonderland kicked Conco out of the ring. Matty Wahlberg said he had a case of beers waiting for him backstage so wanted to kick Jax Jordan’s arse right now.

Matty Wahlberg def. Jax Jordan

Emotions were high in this fight and both men gave it their all. Party Boy Jax Jordan was on a mission to prove ‘Jax Jordan is enough’, whilst Matty Wahlberg’s primary objective was to prove once and for all that Jax was not and leave him in the dust of the 21st Success Story’s 2018 as he goes for an even bigger 2019. This match was excellent and the crowd were right into it feeding off every strike and slam. Highlights included the Natural Born Athlete Wahlberg sitting Jax onto one fans chair, whilst taking another and asking Harley to sit on it. Matty then back right onto where I was sitting and ran and leapt over Harley to strike Jax Jordan with double knees. Matty Wahlberg’s incredible athleticism has never been questioned from my end, but if you ever needed evidence look no further than this incredible display. Another highlight was Party Boy imitating Wahlberg’s rolling jump corner crotch stomp along with in the heat of the moment spitting right into Wahlberg’s face defying Wahlberg’s statement of ‘YOU DON”T BELONG”. Jax did find some success in this match, but Carter Deams and Harley Wonderland did a great job of ensuring that any momentum built by Jordan was short lived. Jax Jordan although defiant until the end would eventually succumb to a devastating triangle choke with this match ending via a choke out submission. To add insult to injury, BABES and their cheerleaders took photos with the Party Boy’s indisposed carcass, before leaving in a state of euphoria to continue their celebrations back stage. When Jax came to he was extremely disappointed looking for answers as he made his way to the back. It should be noted that commentator Rose was not there this evening with Diego replacing him in this role.

Robbie Eagles def, Tyler Payne

Tyler Payne enters first with new purple flashy attire and a new T-Shirt reading “Nobody” in a jersey like format complete with little captain ‘C’ on top corner. This is somewhat of a metamorphosis of the Wrestler formerly known as ‘Snapchad’ and he wants to prove himself in this one against Robbie Eagles. ‘The Sniper of the Skies’ enters to a monumental pop from the crowd (as he should) with them yelling “IN THE AFTERGLOW” along with his entrance track. Robbie gets a welcome back chant and has a bit of fun with the crowd, stating “I have only been gone for one show!” The action in this match was swift and fast, with Tyler keeping up with a man who wrestles at light speed in Robbie Eagles. We saw several direction changes, rolls, flips and swift rope running to counter every move that each man was trying to hit. They even slapped hands to acknowledge the level each man was on. The match delivered a combination of hard hitting strong style, which Robbie was happy to deliver to Payne after the man known ‘Nobody‘ demanded to see it, along with some high flying acrobatics from both men, with Payne hitting a red/shooting star from the apron to the outside along with a run up one in the ring, whilst Robbie delivered his 450 splash to get the win. It was an incredible match and shows why Tyler Payne earned the opportunity to train at Face Dojo. Despite being called a nobody, Tyler Payne is far from that and has a very bright future ahead of him. Robbie is just incredible and has had a truly wonderful year, impressing everywhere he goes and anyone who sees him. If he continues his current upward trajectory it may be more than one PWA show Robbie misses next year, as Japan, the USA and even possibly the UK will enter his scope in 2019.

The Mighty Don’t Kneel Damian Slater and Mikey Broderick def The Velocities Jude the Dude London and Mat Diamond (Jude in the Sky with Diamond)

We get a funny moment to kick things off when during the Velocities entrance, Conco run into the ring decked out in Jude London’s Velocities attire and doing his patented finger guns, suggesting after his failed attempt at joining BABES he is now attempting to join the Velocities. Unfortunately he gets the thumbs down from Mat Diamond and Jude London and Concrete Davidson heads to the back with his tail between his legs, whilst being pelted with red solo cups by Mikey Broderick. We also get a fun exchange between Broderick and Diego, which leads to Diego pushing Broderick over. We get a solid tag team contest between these two new units, with both teams showing great chemistry and cohesiveness. TMDK appeared to get the better of Jude the Dude London, isolating him from Diamond for quite some time. with plenty of quick tags between the ‘Universal Swoldier’ Broderick and the ‘World Beater’ Damian Slater. Jude did get the hot tag to Diamond who showed that not only that he belongs in the Velocities, but you would be forgiven if you thought he had been in the team since it’s creation. London and Diamond looked like they would get the win, going for a double team with London holding Slater in the ring, with Diamond climbing the corner, but Broderick took Mat Diamond out and it led to a two on one scenario with Mikey Broderick and Damian Slater overwhelming Jude ‘The Dude’ London and getting the win for TMDK, who conquer their first team on their path of destruction through PWA. TMDK cut a promo post match, stating that no faction, team or individual can beat them, evening asking the crowd to suggest someone. Damian Slater said that the fans can throw up the four fingers (four nations) but the only four letters that matter in Australian Professional Wrestling are TMDK. This was a fun tag team match and I am excited to see what’s next for both teams. How do the Velocities rebound? and who are in “The Mighty Don’t Kneel’s” strategy for their conquest of PWA? Time will tell!

Michael Spencer def. Madison Eagles

Well this was the match I was most keen for if I am honest. The back and forth the Prince and Master have had over the past few months has been highly entertaining and their back and forth on social media has only added to it. This was the time that these two would finally get their hands on one another. Michael Spencer entered first to arguably the best entrance music in PWA (“F” by MAXIMUM THE HORMONE) but could only stand their and watch as practically the entire crowd bowed down as Madison Eagles made her entrance into Max Watts. The eerie sounds of AFIs Prelude 12/21 promote fear as I am sure is a natural emotion for anyone who steps into the ring with Madison Eagles. It goes without saying that Madison Eagles is ridiculously over in PWA and this particular crowd showed it in spades. As soon as one chant would finish for Eagles, another one would start behind it. Michael Spencer covered his ears and sat in the corner at one point it all got too much for him. The match started with a power handshake test of strength and we were treated to a great technical wrestling match, with Madison Eagles looking for the STF several times during the match, with the Prince of All Wrestling finding the ropes each time. Madison’s technical ability is equalled by Spencer’s phenomenal athleticism and this produced a great match that will leave all the fans wanting more between these two. Spencer took an opportunity to attack the referee, leading to the offical being rather disorientated. This allowed Michael to rake Madison’s eyes and lock in a lion tamer near the ropes. Madison grabbed the ropes and was whacking Michael Spencer to let go. The referee saw this as a tap and the Prince of All Wrestling was awarded a submission victory over the “Master of Wrestling” one on one. Again, a great match and myself and all PWA fans can’t wait until Madison Eagles gets her hands on Michael Spencer again.

The 4 Nations enter first and who is tailing them? None other than Concrete Davidson in a Four Nations T Shirt. He is refused entrance to the 4 Nations and sent packing. On the back of the entrances we get Juan Direction, who make their usual choreographed dance routine to the ring, however one of the members was a bit dodgy performing an over exaggerated spanking motion with the rope. It was revealed that it was CONCO! He once again was rejected from a group. I admire Conco’s used car salesman like persistence and the man had more costume changes than a Lady Gaga concert. This was a really fun match to watch, with Luchi and Bel taking each other out, a huge sexton by Carter Teams over Harley Wonderland and onto some of the combatants on the outside, a hug dive off the corner onto the outside by Hoffman, a “you’re still shit” chant by the crowd, a giant chain submission and escapades with glitter and a garbage man. The match was fast paced and action packed and is a must watch on this show. A Big Fudge distraction allowed for a Juan Direction switcharoo and a roll up on Luchi for the win. Fun, Fun and more Fun!

Matty Wahlberg comes out to John Cena’s “Word Life” theme music and is very much the new Doctor of Thuganomics, complete with spinner beer pong championship. Wahlberg delivers a sharp battle rap (complete with Rose insults) and after his youtube challengers bailed on him last minute, he finds a challenger in the crowd, Saint Nicholas in the flesh! After Matty easily dispatches Santa Claus, he reveals him to be Prefect Billy and has him removed once again! Matty also has a verbal stoush with a fan in the crowd and I got worked as it looked like a shoot to me with members of the PWA security staff looking to get involved. Everything Matty is involved in is fire, no doubt.

Mick Moretti def. Unsocial Jordan

As I tweeted earlier, it must be stated that Unsocial Jordan looked majestic in his new attire and had a great comeback when he was called a wanker (he pointed at his wedding ring as proof that we was not). I said I expected shenanigans in my preview for this show and I was not disappointed, with hide and seek, Madison Eagles chasing an interfering Facebrooke and Tyler Payne getting involved in the contest all occurring. But we were also treated to a fantastic wrestling match with two of the very best to lace them up in PWA. The Rapscallion did get the early jump on the Internet Explorer, but Jordan took complete control of Moretti and proceeded to pick him apart, particularly Moretti’s shoulder, with many including myself questioning whether Moretti would survive. There was craftiness on display from both men and I would expect nothing less from two of the most creative and devious on the roster. Jordan would call for assistance from ‘Nobody’ Payne after trading momentum shifts with Mick Moretti and not being able to put him away. The camera tripod came into play again with a conflicted Tyler Payne hitting the Rapscallion with a glancing blow, which incapacitated him briefly. But he came to during the cover and a quick reversal into a textbook crucifix pin saw Moretti advance to the final with the biggest pop of the night coming from the crowd at this moment. Great match.

This was another very fun match to watch with some of PWA’s biggest personalities together, which basically had the crowd chanting for everyone at different points in this match (except poor Kai Drake, who is a gun). There were some great combinations of battles throughout this one. With a bird flipping match between Big Fudge and Ricky South, an Ugg vs Kai Drake stiff striking battle and former Chocblockers teammates Shazza McKenzie and Bi Fudge going head to head. We also saw Ugg crush everybody in his path, Shazza eat a Dino driver complete with her head being buried into Ricky South’s trunks and the Shazztastic Stunner hit on Caveman Ugg. The most impressive moment was a huge gut wrench into an Ugg Smash that has to be seen to be believed. Ricky South is not a small man and Caveman Ugg whipped him up in the air like he was performing the technique on a small child. Incredible and shows why this man is the current PWA champion. Caveman Ugg pinned three of his opponents to get the win and it really begs the question, just who can stop Caveman Ugg?

Jack J Bonza def. Paris De Silva

Wow, what a main event this was. Jack and Paris both put their bodies on the line in this contest, both bleeding for their trouble to achieve their goal of advancing to the final to meet Mick Moretti in the fight for Black Metal - The most badass prize in professional wrestling. Jack J Bonza proved once again his credentials as the best technical wrestler in Australia as he contorted Paris’ body in ways which Cirque du Soleil would look for in a new performer. There were some creative and rather incredible power moves on display from the leader of the Red Nation, but his grappling was where he shined, doing sever damage to every body part he got his hands on, but particularly the left leg/ankle which appeared to trouble Paris greatly. Despite Bonza’s prowess though, the valiant Paris De Silva showed great heart and was every bit the warrior worthy of holding black metal when this is all said and done, taking a barrage of punishment and holding on for his moment and he got it when Bonza brought a chair into the ring whilst the referee was down hitting Jack J with a swinging move onto the chair, damaging the bridge of Bonza’s nose and leaving him worse for wear. Paris would climb the corner and look for that incredible shooting star DDT once again, but was caught by Bonza, who hoisted him into a suplex position before transitioning into a tombstone piledriver - incredible stuff. Jack J would then proceed to transition through a number of submission holds on De Silva before settling on what he calls the “Banelock”, a modified STF/Dragon Sleeper combination that would most certainly break the back of the Batman. Paris had absolutely no choice but to submit to the leader of the Red Nation who joins his cohort in the final of Colosseum. Jack J Bonza did not even have a moment to appreciate what had happened before Mick Moretti hit the ring to stand face to face with his opponent for the final of the Colosseum tournament. They stand forehead to forehead and push each other with said body part, just like you see prizefighters do at a weigh-in and they are fighting for the ultimate prize in black metal.

Juan Direction’s music hits and they come to the ring and demand their title shot for the tag team titles occurs in February instead of the Colosseum final which receives an incredible chorus of boos from the crowd. Diego announces at this point that there is actually a show in between this one and the Fight for Black Metal show in February and the tag titles can be contested then when opponents in the Colosseum final must team up and put their the titles on the line against hungry number one contenders. We also received both good and bad news for this upcoming event on January 13. The good news, none other than the King of Goths JIMMY HAVOC will be appearing! The terrible news, this show would be Diego’s last show for PWA…truly devastating news.

That concluded the evening and capped off a fantastic show from start to finish. Once again PWA went above and beyond in their presentation and the show they put on for their loyal fanbase. Every wrestler gives everything in their being on these shows and it is why some are saying this is PWA’s best show all year. It is a must watch on PWA play and essential viewing for any fan of professional wrestling.

PWA Black Label Fans! It is almost time to slip into your freshest throwback and slap on your finest snapback as Pro Wrestling Australia raises red solo cups in the air to toast an incredible year with its biggest party, when PWA Black Label Presents: Friday's are for the BABES this coming Friday Night December 7!

The fans in attendance will have some ragingly entertaining action to look forward to, including the next stage of the colosseum tournament (where the winner gets a SWORD!), a wrestling royalty rivalry come to a head, a new alliance tested against a mighty force, a good old fashioned shot at revenge and the return home of a wrestler who has been soaring above the competition. Let's break down some of the announced matches and I'll give my thoughts on what should be another incredible night of wrestling, put on by one of Australia's premier promotions.

Colosseum Semi Final: Jack J Bonza vs Paris De Silva

The first match announced for Fridays are for the BABES was the first of the two Colosseum tournament Semi Final matches when the leader of the Red Nation and one half of the current PWA tag team champions Jack J Bonza, faces off against the man, the gif, the legend Paris De Silva. If we start with arguably the greatest technical wrestler in Australia today, Jack J Bonza has had a year to remember for the PWA promotion, despite an early setback against the Bullet Club's Gino Gambino and Bad Luck Fale in a tag team match with the other half of the current PWA tag team champions Mick Moretti. For you see, since that loss, Bonza has not lost in PWA since, defeating Kai Drake, Mat Diamond, Moustache Mountain (Tyler Bate + Trent Seven) before winning the vacated PWA Tag Team Championship alongside the Rapscallion in an epic encounter with Paris De Silva and Jude the Dude London (aka the Velocities) before defeating then in arguably a greater contest which came down to the millisecond for a fall. Jack J Bonza drew a wrestler who could match his technical prowess in the form of AJ Istria for the first round of the Colosseum tournament and this lead to a wrestling masterpiece, with Bonza winning with a crafty neck bridge pin.

Paris De Silva's year in PWA has not been as flush with wins as Jack J's has been, however no self respecting PWA fan would rubbish De SIlva's performances in either singles or tag team matches this year - he has been sensational. Despite some losses at the hands of the tag team this Friday's event is named after (BABES), Paris and his partner Jude London proved themselves to be one of Australia's hottest tag team commodities, winning a four way lucha libre style tag match at the PWA x Progress show, placing them in tag team title contention. This lead to the incredible two aforementioned tag team battles between with Velocities and Four Nations with the second one leading to Jack Bonza and Paris De Silva producing the GIF that went around the wrestling twitter world, the Shooting Star DDT. Tag team action aside, it needs to be recognised that Paris De Silva is undefeated in singles action this year, winning a four way match against Concrete Davidson, Matty Wahlberg and Tree Hugger Luchi, before winning an outstanding colosseum opening round war against a very game 'Tuff Stuff' Ricky South, who replaced KellyAnne at short notice but still took De Silva to his absolute limits.

So what can we expect to see in this match?

A high flying wizard taking on a technical wrestling mastermind who will stop at nothing to ground De Silva and put a halt to the massive wave of momentum behind him. Both men have made it this far in the tournament due to them being two of the best Australian wrestling has to offer. Either man can take this one on their night, but after so many attempts of getting so close to beating Bonza and the 4 Nations but falling short, Paris De Silva will dig deep here and find something in his arsenal (perhaps another GIF worthy moment) to take out Jack J Bonza and advance in the tournament to meet the winner of Unsocial Jordan and Mick Moretti in the final.

Pick: Paris De Silva

Colosseum Semi Final: Unsocial Jordan vs Mick Moretti

Unsocial Jordan's 2018 should have him in everyone's conversations for PWA's wrestler of the year. He is "undefeated" and has dispatched the ChocBlockers, BABES, Big Fudge, Jax Jordan, Michael Spencer and Adam Hoffman before even hitting the colosseum tournament. Jordan is willing to win by any method required, meaning his trusty camera tripod ends up involved in his matches at one point or another to ensure victory is alway within his grasp. Unsocial's rather dysfunctional relationship with his SMS counterparts have made for compelling storytelling this year, which saw Facebrooke and Snapchad being labelled jobbers by Jordan on one hand, but on the other hand they came to his aid in his first round Colosseum win against the 'Aussie Arrow' Kyle Fletcher, allowing him to maintain his undefeated streak and advance to the next round of the tournament.

Mick Moretti did not have the ideal start to 2018, falling to Gambino and Fale, Matt Rogers and Will Ospreay, before turning his momentum 360 degrees with Tag Team partner Jack J Bonza, defeating Moustache Mountain and the Velocities on route to PWA Tag team championship gold, before being invited to compete in the Colosseum tournament where he drew 'The World Beater' Damian Slater in round 1 in a close encounter to main event the PWA Colosseum event. Moretti edged Slater on the night which may just play a big part in the next stage of the tournament.

So what can we expect to see in this match?

So whilst I expect to see the amazing wrestling acumen of both performers in this match, I think there is one other word that will sum up this match - Shenanigans.

As mentioned previously, Jordan has used outside interference and foreign objects with his camera, Tree Hugger Luchi and SMS all getting involved in his matches this year. The Rapscallion Mick Moretti is known of the master of mischief and has plenty of tricks up his sleeve himself, just see him using his own cane to have Mikey Broderick removed from Ringside during his last Colosseum match. A disappointed Damian Slater will also be in town this friday night and may be looking for payback, but we should also note Jordan failing to rescue Snapchad from the hands of The Mighty Don't Kneel and the fact that Snapchad may also be looking for retaliation. Like I said, Shenanigans.

I for one think Unsocial Jordan's undefeated streak will continue and my pick of heel of the year reaches the final of Colosseum against Paris De Silva.

Pick: Unsocial Jordan

Matty Wahlberg's Beer Pong Open Challenge

Matty Wahlberg has been on a tear in his Beer Pong raffle, taking out every raffle winner in his path (some far better than others) taking him to a perfect 6-0 record, with no defeat in sight. Apparently the last guy in particular ruined it for everyone, as Matty has declared an open challenge in a quest to find an athlete, someone able to step up and try give him significant competition. The key word being try. We have seen videos from fans - one being newcomer, the other looking for revenge as he was a 1 in the 6-0. We have also seen JXT and Rat Daddy among other Australian Wrestlers who put their hands up on social media. So WHO will Matty choose? We will have to wait and see Friday Night!

Matty Wahlberg v Jax Jordan

Matty Wahlberg like the athlete he is pulls double duty on this night, when he attempts to rid himself of Jax Jordan and leave him in 2018. Jax Jordan has been auditioning to join BABES ever since Carter Deams was accepted into Fale's Dojo and headed to New Zealand for his training. The Party Boy did everything in his power to endear himself to Matty, however every time he tried, he failed with Jordan and Wahlberg falling to Juan Direction at Sold our Souls for Rock and Robbie, before shenanigans with Wahlberg cost Jax Jordan in a fatal four way at Call to Arms. The final spark to set off the powder keg that this had built to be was a returning Carter Deams and Matty Wahlberg's attempt to earn the number one contenders spot for the PWA tag team championship foiled by a Jax Jordan distraction, which lead to Juan Direction to swap members and get the win. What followed was a brutal attack with Deams and Wahlberg posterizing Jordan before cutting off some of his freshly dyed BABES blonde locks.

That brings us to December 7 when the 21st Century Success Story Matty Wahlberg squares off against Party Boy Jax Jordan one on one. Will Wahlberg be victorious at his rager to end the year or will the gatecrasher Jax Jordan get some well earned vengeance.

I think Jax Jordan gets his vengeance here and I think Rose fro the Triple M commentary team might give him a hand to get it done.

Pick: Jax Jordan

Michael Spencer vs Madison Eagles

Friday December 7 we are treated to a match between wrestling royalty, when the Prince of All Wrestling goes up against the Master of All Wrestling that has been boiling away on the PWA stove for a good half of the year. Michael Spencer used Madison Eagles (against her will) as a weapon in the fans bring the weapons match against Ricky South at 'We Sold Ourselves for Rock and Robbie' before paying the price for the lapse in judgement receiving a swift kick to the testicles for his trouble. Spencer would not take this lying down, attacking Eagles after she defeated Shazza McKenzie to qualify for the She-1 at PWA Call to Arms. The Prince and Master also brawled through the crowd and to the back during a fatal four way match they were a part of against Snapchad and Marcus Kool which has lead to this. Finally the match the fans want and the match that they want. On December 7, they finally get their hands on each other and we find out who is the greater wrestling royalty.

After both having strong years, this will be a fantastic match and could easily be match of the night when the night is over. I am going to go with the Master of Wresting in this one, with Madison Eagles making Michael Spencer submit in the middle of the ring, being the only four nations member to win at Fridays are for the Babes.

The Velocities and TMDK both recruited new members at PWA's colosseum show. This means that we are able to get this fantastic tag match where TMDK's Damian Slater teams with new recruit Mikey Broderick take on The Velocities Jude London and new Velocities member Mat Diamond.

Which unit will be more cohesive? Will TMDK establish their dominance in PWA Black Label with a win here? or will recruiting Mat Diamond finally give the Velocities the fire power to win 'the big one'?

This is a hard one to try and pick due to both having something to prove here. Flip of a coin and it has landed on tails, so TMDK it is.

This match will be a fun one, with four very different teams in action. Juan Direction will have a point to prove after claiming the number one contendership at the last show against BABES. But they certainly have a target on their backs in this match, with BABES out for revenge, 4 Nations out send a message on behalf of the tag team champions (Moretti and Bonza) and Bel Pierce and Tree Hugger Luchi providing a very interesting tag team combination to add to this Pick n Mix of a match.

I will have to go with Juan Direction for this encounter, as they need to keep winning to build momentum towards their eventual tag title shot early next year.

Following an incredible match against Will Ospreay and my pick for match of the year at PWA Call to Arms 2018, Robbie Eagles was called up by 'The Underboss' Bad Luck Fale and the Bullet Club OGs to team with Taiji Ishimori in the New Japan Pro Wrestling Super Tag League, submitting Jushin Thunder Liger on debut and having an all round strong showing on the NJPW stage. He also defeated Austin Aries on the final night of the World Series Wrestling Elite Takeover tour to become the first Australian to hold the World Series Wrestling Championship. On night one of 1Fall entertainment's studio superstars, Robbie Eagles defeated Adam Brooks, Gino Gambino, Dowie James, Jonah Rock and Logan Grey to become the inaugural 1Fall Entertainment openweight champion. On December 7 Robbie Eagles returns to PWA with the Wrestler formerly known as Snapchad, Tyler Payne in his crosshairs. How will Robbie Eagles fare against the man unmasked and humiliated by The Mighty Don't Kneel at PWA Colosseum. How will Tyler respond to this monumental task before him after the mental anguish felled upon him after his best friend abandoned him at his time of need despite being there for him? You will have to be there to find out!

I predict a very strong showing from Tyler Payne, however Robbie Eagles will pick up the win to complete an incredible year for the Sniper of the Skies.

Trent Seven issued an Atlas Championship open challenge for Progress Wrestling Chapter 77: Pumpkin Spice Progress taking place from the Electric Ballroom in Camden on October 28 and a very familiar face to Trent Seven, the Australian and New Zealand Wrestling scenes came from behind the curtain. Mr Juicy Gino Gambino, who entered to trap music looking ever so imposing in his all black attire with massive coat and the Melbourne City Wrestling title in tow.

Lock up to open and these two massive bulls charging each other and locking horns is awesome to see. Trent gets Mr Juicy into the corner the first time after heavy resistance. They seperate and Seven smirks at Gambino. The second time Gino gets Trent Seven into the corner easily and twists Sevens moustache ends to playfully mock the champion. Juicy follows up by doing pushups, a plank and sit ups to the crowd laughing and chanting "you f$#!ed up". We then get a fun shoulder block contest between the two and despite heavy contact, neither man is backing up. Trent Seven hoists his tights up high and Gino Gambino pulls his singlet down before getting self conscious and putting it back up they are going to put everything into this one!. Seven after some shenanigans hits a shoulder block and gets Gambino down.

Juicy gets the champion into the corner and hits him with several corner splashes. The first few are full force, but after the third he begins to fatigue heavily. After being goaded into one more from the crowd. Gambino gets down on his haunches, struggling to breathe and threatening to vomit. The match stops as Trent Seven asks the referee to get Gambino's puffer and shows great sportsmanship to help a man while he was down. Gambino gets his puffer, but then sprays it in the face of Seven! Seven tries to cross body Gino, but he falls down and the champion misses. We end up with a 9.5 count before Seven lunges at the ropes to get himself up.

The champion then tries to lift Gambino and after some pats on the back from Mr Juicy, Trent lifts him onto his shoulders before face planting with Gambino on his back. After a near fall, Gambino applies a bear hug from behind that makes life in this match very difficult for the champion. Seven with some encouragement from the crowd lifts Gambino into a backpack position and shifts his weight falling on top of Gambino and both men hitting the mat hard. Seven follows up with a low dive when Juicy heads outside the ring. Trent Seven throws Gino straight back in for the corner move 'the ashes special' but cops a big scoop slam and back senton after hitting it. These two behemoths battle to the corner and we get a massive superplex from Seven to Gambino! But it's only a near near fall! A striking contest leads to Gambino kicking out the champion's leg and hitting a his signature spike piledriver and again only getting a near fall. Gambino climbs the corner turnbuckle with his back to Seven. Trent Seven digs deep and rallies, chopping Gino Gambino's hamstring before lifting him into his shoulders and hitting the burning hammer for the win.

What a fantastic match and there could not have been a better representative of the #NowWeConquer movement than arguably the best super heavyweight in Australian professional wrestling, Gino Gambino to answer this open challenge. This match had amazing feats of strength, an amazing top rope spot, some very funny moments and a great story woven into the tapestry of the match. Head to Demand Progress and watch it for yourself!

Late last night (Sydney, Australia time) I ordered my first ever Fite PPV replay and I chose Joey Janela's LA Confidential, a collaboration between Joey Janela and Game Changer Wrestling that had streamed live all around the world earlier in the day. The main reason I chose it was because Shazza McKenzie was live tweeting how much she enjoyed it, so I wanted to see for myself. It was a wicked show featuring plenty of high spots, nostalgia, rising stars and violence. It will draw plenty of media attention due to the main event featuring high profile Actor, Director, Producer, Screenwriter, Fashion Designer and most importantly Professional Wrestler, former WCW Heavyweight Champion David Arquette. But there is plenty more to this show than one appearance. Let's take a look at the show, so it goes without saying that there are spoilers past this point.

Co main event: Eli Everfly is awarded victory over Marko Stunt after injury to Stunt.

GCW Championship: Nick Gage (c) b David Arquette in a Deathmatch (yes you read that correctly.

The Great Sasuke b DJZ

The first wrestler we see on this show was DJZ, a high flyer who with his light up chest plate, is a walking electronic dance music show. DJZ is a current member of the IMPACT roster, but has wrestled in a number of promotions in his 15+ year career. His opponent for this opening contest of the evening was The Great Sasuke, a professional wrestling legend, a former WWF Light heavyweight champion and IWGP Junior Heavyweight champion.

Both men get early moments in this contest, where the DJ Booth throws in an air horn sound to to pay homage to them getting the upper hand. This venue (The Hi Hat in Los Angeles) is very cosy and the first time I really realised it was when the Great Sasuke went for a senton onto the apron and DJZ rolled out of the way. The crowd on the right hand side of the ring (from main fixed camera shot) was basically hugging the ring, leaving very little margin for error, making it all the more impressive.

Following the miss, DJZ had some nice offensive moments, hitting a top rope codebreaker and super kick but an attempted springboard from the second turnbuckle lead to a nice back suplex from the Great Sasuke. Sasuke then applies his signature Octopus Stretch in the centre of the ring, but DJZ manages to escape. Sasuke shows his strength and poise, getting DJZ into a piledriver postion and pivoting to show DJZ to all four sides of the ring before hitting the move. The great one then proves again that the high flying moves might not be working for him on this evening when he hits a Swanton Bomb onto the raised knees of DJZ. Best spot of the match then followed this moment, when DJZ left the ring, climbed onto the DJ booth then dived with huge air onto Sasuke and hit a swinging DDT. Sasuke delivers a strong powerbomb countering a follow up rolling move from DJZ, which allows him to climb to the top turnbuckle to hit an elbow drop for the win. This was a fun opening match, with the crowd very jovial throughout.

NB - Amazing Red was due to face the Great Sasuke, but was unable to fly out of New York due to weather issues which lead to a reshuffle of the card.

Tony Deppen b Jungle Boy

Tony Deppen immediately wins the walkout song award of the night for coming out to Starship's smash hit "We Built This City". Deppen has been around for 6 Years and has appeared for the likes of Chikara, CZW and TRUE Wrestling. His opponent is the highly touted Jungle Boy, who debuted on the professional wrestling circuit at the end of 2015. He enters the ring to huge chants of "Jungle Boy" from the crowd.

Deppen immediately establishes himself as the heel in the contest by blowing snot on Jungle Boy. Charming stuff. Jungle Boy shows why there is hype behind him, showing incredible athleticism to practically avoid every piece offence that Deppen throws at him to commence this contest, however when Deppen he does get offence in, is using dirty tactics. Jungle Boy puts together a nice hurricarana, followed up by a beautiful springboard armdrag and the a solid dropkick. Jungle Boy continues to receive plenty of love from the LA crowd and i believe it is a combination of him being amazing with a hint of the old California bias (Jungle Boy is from California). Jungle Boy gets Tony Deppen to the outside and plans an attack, however he is caught in a power bomb position and is thrown into the corner post on the outside. Deppen then enters the ring before hitting a suicida onto Jungle Boy on the outside. We get a bit of brawling through the crowd at this point, which is unfortunately a bit difficult to follow due to the positioning of the camera crew - it is an unfortunate problem throughout the event when the action spills to the outside. Another awe inspiring spot in this match sees Jungle Boy hit a springboard moonsault from the second rope to Deppen on the outside.

The action returns to the ring and we get a combination of strong moves from Jungle Boy - a rolling jumping DDT, A corner lariat, followed by a springboard lariat, a pumphandle gutbuster, into a sitout Tiger Bomb into a springboard cutter known as the Jungle Cutter. Despite this ridiculous amount of offence, Deppen shows great heart to survive. Jungle Boy attempts a 450 splash, but misses, giving Tony Deppen the opening he needs. Deppen hits a double foot stomp off the top rope onto the back of a bent over Jungle Boy, along with some savage strikes for good measure. Jungle Boy gets to his feet and we see a back and forth exchange from both men, aiming for the final bit of momentum to swing in their favour. We see a huge reverse hurricarana from Jungle Boy and an incredible sunset flip bomb from the corner rope position. Then completely against the momentum, Deppen in his final act of desperation, rolled up Jungle Boy with a school boy and then held the tights and the unassuming referee counted the three. A great match by both men which certainly displayed why there is a lot of love for Jungle Boy in the American independent wrestling scene. Jungle Boy despite the loss, has earned the love of the fans who chant for him to "please come back"

Brody King b Hardcore Holly

Hardcore Bob Holly, the WWF/E veteran fresh off of his tour of Australia with Rock n Roll Wrestling (Had to get an Australian Wrestling Reference in their somewhere!) faced off against another wrestler on the rise in Brody King, a man who has been popping up everywhere on the American independent circuit including Bar Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, MLW, DEFY, AAW and even appeared for UK based promotion PROGRESS just in 2018. Brody King's size and strength advantage immediately on display in this one as each of the opening lock ups go his way, manhandling Bob Holly with ease. Hardcore does have experience on his side however and uses that to get some offence in where he can. King hits some big scoop slams, a suplex and a senton splash while on offence and Holly hits a big spear to give him a bit longer in this contest. We see an amazing chop exchange between the two in the middle of the ring and I am cringing watching them and hearing the thuds. Brody King goes for a Uranage slam which Holly counters into a DDT again somehow surviving. Hardcore Holly uses this opportunity to set up a classic Alabama Slam with the force of the throw actually throwing Holly backwards - King is much much larger than Holly! It is only a near fall due to the delay in getting a cover attempt and King counters a second attempt into a Uranage for the win.

Post match Hardcore Holly puts Brody King over in a promo whilst also thanking the fans for supporting GCW. Bob gets a nice Holly chant to close it out. This match was short and sweet and Bob Holly looks is still in amazing shape. A nice nostalgia moment.

Penelope Ford b Human Tornado

We got an intergender match on this card when the 'Bad Girl' Penelope Ford went up against cult hero Human Tornado.

The contest commences with Tornado outmuscling Ford in the lock up, getting her to the ground and getting on top of her. Tornado gets Ford into the corner lifts her to the top rope and pats her breasts, which Ford reacts to with an almighty slap to the face followed by a jumping arm drag. Ford gets Tornado onto the outside and attempts a suicida but is caught and suplexed onto the outside for her trouble. Tornado gets her back into the ring and delivers some hard strikes he sits Ford in the corner and delivers his dancing foot stomp combination, followed up by a running face wash. Ford, shows fantastic heart and will not be put away.

Ford fires up and strikes Tornado hard herself, however an attempted springboard move allows Human Tornado to throw Penelope Ford off balance leading to a big face plant. Tornado then gets Penelope into the corner and goes for a big boot and misses, allowing Ford back to deliver a german suplex him into the corner turnbuckle. Ford uses the change in momentum to attempt a diving move from the top turnbuckle but unfortunately Tornado is waiting and she gets hit with pimp slap. Tornado then attempts some submissions with a reverse triangle and then follows up with a chin lock. It takes a few attempts to escape, but Ford manages to hit a Jawbreaker to release the hold. Penelope follows up with a beautiful handspring cutter and locks in an inverted cross face on Human Tornado. Tornado hits a scoop slam on Ford and then proceeds to climb the turnbuckle. The Bad Girl then sprints over and attacks Tornado climbing the turnbuckle herself and ends up behind him. Tornado elbows Ford and grabs her by the scruff of the neck and we essentially see a turbo backpack from the top rope. Ford can only be in survival mode here and the punishment continues through a huge lariat and a leg catch back suplex. Tornado has been arrogant throughout the match but at this point his arrogance is turned up to 11, clapping his handy work along with mocking Ford. Human Tornado lifts Penelope Ford into the corner and attempts a back suplex that Ford counters into a sliced bread number two. After a fighting spirit strike exchange, Tornado goes for the leg catch back suplex again but fails. The Bad Girl goes for the handspring cutter but is caught by Tornado. Penelope then on the fly hits a DDT from the catch and collects the pinfall. Despite his cockiness throughout the match, Tornado knows he is beaten and raises Penelope Ford's hand. I know Intergender wrestling is not everyone's cup of tea, however I really enjoyed this match and believe it told a great story. The heart of Ford was on display for all to see and this match was very believable, which seems to be the argument of most critics of Intergender wrestling.

Ethan Page b D LO Brown

The next contest of the evening saw All Ego Ethan Page take on former WWF superstar D LO Brown in another new school vs old school match, following on from DJZ vs Sasuke and King vs Holly earlier in the evening.

Ethan Page's ego was certainly in display in this contest, for example following the very first lock up, Ethan Page hit a shoulder block and delivered the Nation of Domination pose. He followed this up with another knock down and performing D LO's classic head wobble. This clearly grinds D LO's gears so much that he actually takes the ascendancy, hitting some shoulder blocks of his own, followed up with some hug chops in the corner on the man dubbed All Ego. Ethan Page manages to hotshot Brown on the ropes, following up with a running elbow drop and then choking Brown using the ropes. Brown then sees another opportunity to mock D LO with him down in the middle of the ring he stands at his head and kicks his shoulder and goes for the people's elbow but D LO gets out of the way.

D LO then hits a second rope moonsault, with chants of 'you still got it' in reaction to the move, but it only achieves a near fall. D LO follows up with his signature leg drop and sit out powerbomb but only for near falls. Ethan Page then gets some offence of his own, hitting a Swanton bomb and in another moment of pure mockery, hitting the rock bottom on Brown. All Ego gets a chair in the ring and hits Brown with it, some shenanigans ensue and whilst lifting Page, D Lo cops a shot from some brass knuckles to counter a slam and Page lands on top of Brown and gets the win as he states in his after match promo "by any means necessary" - one last parting shot at Brown with the Nation of Domination tag line. This was a good match and I enjoyed the mockery story lead by the heel Page. Again the nostalgia points tallied up as I saw D LO Brown wrestle in what feels like a long time between drinks.

This match was crazy with a lot of action in a small amount of time. Everyone nailed big moves and had a great showing. Kikutaro and Owens started the match, but very quickly each wrestler got in the ring and showed what they had. Atlas showing how swift and agile he was, Delilah Doom was suplexing everyone in sight, Owens hit a Uranage on one wrestler into another he has holding in a headlock in easily the move of the match. Facade showed off his high flying prowess, but ultimately it was Jimmy Lloyd who hit a piledriver on Atlas to get the win.

This was a fun match that was chaotic for the most part, with some great spots throughout. One of the highlights I had not yet mentioned was a chain submission with six of the competitors involved until Owens broke it up.

Fatu b KTB

Jacob Fatu is a part of the legendary Samoan dynasty and is trained by his Uncle Rikishi, whom he was wearing a pair of his tights to pay homage in thsi match and KTB is Kyle The Beast. 'Nuff Said!

KTB immediately kicks off the contest by grabbing a chair which Fatu counters. Kyle The Beast then wrestles the chair back and throws it at Fatu, following up with a pump kick at the chair. Fatu seems relatively unfazed by it. KTB then counters a charging/ diving Jacob Fatu, delivering some damage on the outside. Fatu is then thrown back into ring. KTB gloats to crowd and turns his back on Jacob Fatu for far too long turn and gets hit with a huge dive from Fatu. A Table or Door is then brought into the ring and set up in the corner. We are teased with back and forth counters. Who will go through the wood? We are treated to a striking contest in middle of the ring with two absolute monsters going after each other. But Fatu uses his cinder block of a head to skull bash KTB's head in. A big spinebuster from KTB is followed up by spearing Jacob Fatu through the door/table. Kyle the Beast hits a sit out powerbomb but only gets a near fall. We get more wood in the ring which is set up to sit on two chairs; must be a door after all. We aren't teased as much this time with Fatu hitting a moonsault onto a standing KTB and the crash through the door. Fatu follows up with a Samoan Drop for the 'W'. This match was fast and furious, with both men wrestlers you should look out for. Wow.

This match was interesting as both men were almost identical in size, with Stunt used to wresting much larger competition. Everfly ambushed Stunt during his entrance and immediately an incredibly fast pace was established. Everfly hits Stunt with Sliced Bread 2 from standing position on apron. Both mean end up outside where Everfly throws a chair at Stunt on outside. Everfly sets Marko up on chair outside and dives into chairs with Stunt narrowly getting out of the way and Everfly paying the price of high risk offence with Stunt then taking the opportunity to dive onto The Fly on the outside.

The action returns to the ring with Stunt hitting a huge dropkick but failing on a follow up 450 splash. Everfly hits an amazing springboard DDT followed up by a Michinoku driver then a unique submission lockup in the middle of the ring. Stunt counters a corner attack from Eli and both men end up in middle of the ring for striking exchange. Everfly hits a Buckle bomb and a hurricarana. Everfly then hit a massive canadian destroyer on Marko Stunt and he ends up on the outside. Eli Everfly then starts throwing chairs at Marko on the outside after slamming him onto a chair. Everfly then heads backstage looking for something and comes back with a door. The two men head into the crowd and it is very difficult to see what is going on. Due to Camera crew being in a bad position and people crowded around. Next thing we see is a Canadian Destroyer through the door and the crowd swallows both men up. Again disappointingly I can’t see the finish due to crowd blocking the camera crew, but Eli Everfly awarded win due to match getting out of hand and Stunt unable to continue. referee called for bell. This was an amazing match which unfortunately had to end prematurely due to injury. Both men are incredible competitors and I am disappointed that some of the match was obscured due to the camera crew being unable to get through the crowd.

Video I have seen from a member of the LA Confidential crowd shows the Canadian Destroyer occurring and the flip leading to Stunt's leg smashing into a piece of furniture which has caused a fibula break. All the best to him in his upcoming surgery and recovery.

GCW Championship: Nick Gage (c) b David Arquette in a Deathmatch (Can you believe that! David Arquette in a deathmatch!)

On paper this is an extremely lopsided match. Gage is a deathmatch legend, a CZW hall of famer, tournament of death winner along with winning the GCW tournament of survival. Arquette had wrestled all of four matches leading up to this (2018), with his previous 5 matches occurring in 2000 and 2010. It is crazy stuff.

The match starts and David Arquette keeps getting out of the ring and through the ropes to avoid Gage; he does not want to engage and it is understandable. Nick Gage encourages him to hit him and then spits on him. Arquette obliges but Gage hits him back twice as hard. Gage throws him to outside then proceeds to throw chairs at Arquette before throwing him on chairs. Both men are brawling on the outside, again out of view of the cameras which is frustrating. Gage gets David Arquette back into ring.

Nick Gage wedges a chair between the top and middle corner pad of one of the corners. Arquette avoids being thrown into said chair and throws a Charging gage into it instead. Arquette hits a hurricarana for follow up and Gage rolls to the outside. Arquette then climbs the corner and dives to the outside. Arquette then attempts some suicide dives to outside with chairs, then attempts a dive over rope but Gage strikes him. Gage then gets Arquette back into ring and gets a door set up. He spears Arquette through the door and proceeds to bash him over the head with pieces of the broken door, being willed on by the crowd. With Arquette down and out, Gage heads to the back, looking for more deadly tools. Of course Nick Gage returns with several bundles of light tubes.

Joey Ryan who was scheduled to appear before injuring his pectoral, then runs into the ring, complete with arm in sling. Ryan floors Gage with a superkick before Messiah enters the ring and attacks Ryan, tossing him to the outside. Messiah and Gage bicker, leading to Arquette hitting a low blow on Nick Gage and following up with a diamond cutter. He does not put Gage away and Gage repays him for the cheap shot by slamming him onto a bundle of light tubes.

Gage the sets up more light tubes on two chairs. Arquette out of survival bites Gage and then hits another diamond cutter through the light tubes set up on the chairs. Gage sits in one corner and Arquette grabs some light tubes and leans them against Gage before performing a running senton.

Both men are struggling to their feet, with Arquette getting there first with use of the ropes. The crowd is chanting for Arquette and he is too busy engaging with them to notice the dangerous Nick Gage. I mean seriously, you should NEVER turn your back on Nick Gage. Gage takes to Arquette's head with a Pizza slicer. He follows up by grabbing a light tube and carving it into Arquette's cranium, before smashing it over his head and carving some more. This gets a reaction from Arquette who rolls around and I believe this is in shoot and is when slices his neck open. Arquette goes for two covers which Gage kicks out of. Arquette the leaves the ring with him putting pressure on his neck to try and stop it bleeding, he is a bloody mess and is clearly panicking at this point. He returns to the ring. Arquette is shooting now, no doubt about it.

Nick Gage grabs him, but Arquette wilts to the ground as he wants this to end. Gage goes for light tubes and smacks them on Arquette's back and Arquette grabs a chair and smacks Gage with it in shoot. He gets on Gages back and Gage flings him off, covers him and gets the pin. Arquette immediately gets up and exits the ring, in need of medical attention. Gage cuts a promo about real death match wrestlers and thanks the fans, which to me confirms that Arquette was in shoot at the end. Despite the outcome, this was an incredible match that I believe will go down in wrestling folklore. David Arquette is nothing short of a bad ass for accepting this booking and performing the way he did against a deathmatch legend like Gage. He has nothing to be ashamed of and most certainly has earned himself many more fans out of it. I am in awe of the man. Again, incredible match, you have to check it out if you can handle deathmatches.

Joey Janela's LA Confidential was a fantastic show with nostalgia, violence, big spots and up and coming independent wrestling stars. I was highly entertained from start to finish and will now go and watch some of Joey Janela's previous efforts, such as Spring Break and Lost in New York after experiencing a show like that one. Amazing.

On March 17th 2018, Lord Mark Williamson survives a power struggle to be elected President of the Claw and with this rise saw him flip the bird to two centuries of hidden tradition for as the man described it himself in one of the first videos he filmed after his appointment “violence is the only language that is understood universally”. The President's first act was to announce a public unveiling of the Underworld fight club, to create visibility and transparency so that hundreds could be drawn into the hypnotic chaos concealed from them since its inception. His vision was to allow members of the public to consume these events of mass violence, creating a convent of bloodthirsty, desensitised, soldiers to help Lord Mark Williamson and the Claw to bring about “the end of all things”. We have been given three servings from the Underworld menu so far, so this begs the question; what have we learned so far about this mysterious promotion?

Underworld Wrestling is Unique

Underworld is far removed from your run of the mill independent wrestling promotion. It is a dangerous fight club, capable of taking years off of the life of its competitors, with a unique rules and point accumulation system. These systems are well explained in the menacing looking graphic below.

The Action at Underworld Wrestling is Swift and Brutal

The ten minute time limit for regular matches and the fifteen minute time limit for championship matches show us that the constantly counting down clock is not on anyone's side but the Underworld Champions. The result of this is desperation; we have desperate fighters taking often unnecessary risks because of the time limit. They can't allow someone else the opportunity to come through the floodgates and take their points. They can't allow a champion a victory from survival. These gambles can leave a warrior susceptible to a submission or brutal knock out and we got our first knockout since the public unveiling when Jackson Kelly almost successfully removed JXT's head from his shoulders with his patented boot. Title matches are particularly nasty, being no disqualification we have seen Erika Reid choke Avary with a golf club, Erika Reid stab Vixsin with a fork and Avary sticking a screwdriver through Erika Reid's ear piercing. The Women's championship has been the most captivating to watch so far and with Vixsin, Erika Reid and Avary in the mix, I only expect good things on the horizon.

Lord Mark Williamson Will Do WHATEVER It Takes To Get What He Wants

The President of the Claw will stop at nothing to bring on "the end of all things" which he believes he will be able to do once in possession of both the two Underworld Championships. If you need any evidence as to how far Mark Williamson will go to get what he wants, look no further than his own Underworld announcer and commentator Lord Andy Coyne. Mark Williamson, kidnapped Andy's brother Rudy and was holding him at Claw HQ, advising Andy that Rudy might be involved in a little accident if he did not cooperate. Despite having difficulty controlling some of the roster such as Gino Gambino and Syd Parker, make no mistake that Lord Mark Williamson is a major player in all that is happening in the promotion, manipulating people such as Benny English to achieve his means.

Underworld Wrestling Brings Out The Best (And Worst) Of All Who Walk Through It's Gates

The allure of this underground fight club has seen many fighters from a variety of backgrounds come through it's gates chasing glory. It means that a motley crew of characters are stimulating our pupils every time we watch. From Beach Bum Booters, to JaySticks, Dreamtime Voodoo witches to Hardcore Bitches, we get fragments from across the entire Australian Wrestling Scene to create one fantastic mosaic. But just because you have seen these talents elsewhere before, doesn't mean you have seen them in Underworld Wrestling. As JXT found out in episode one, this is not just another wrestling show for a professional wrestler. Each contest is a fight, meaning that each combatant must indulge the darkness, their twisted side they might like to hide to ultimately succeed. Jackson Kelly for example, ditched the tights and the bucket hat and his showmanship because he was acutely aware of what to expect. Erika Reid seems to take a 'kill or be killed' mentality into her championship matches, which has seen the brutal use of weapons as mentioned earlier and made her a star of the first episodes. Avary's piercing manipulation on Reid was also a side of her I'd never seen. Back to JXT, after a series of setbacks and some teases the last time we saw him, I think we might also see a different side of JXT next time around.

Underworld is a must watch

The final thing I've learned is that Underworld Wrestling is a must watch. It is the perfect supplement to add to your current wrestling diet - plenty of vitamin V(iolence), and it is awesome to see an Australian Wrestling promotion pushing the boundaries and testing the definitions of what it means to be one. Congratulations to all involved with the promotion and I very much look forward to watching the legend continue to grow. If you are yet to experience it for yourself, you can currently catch the first episode on Underworld's youtube page absolutely free.

On 10th and 11th of November 2018, Pro Wrestling Eve hosted it's SHE-1 event, where twelve of the highest level wrestlers in the world qualified to compete in the league to crown the "Ace of Eve", guaranteeing the winner the headline position at Pro Wrestling Eve's WRESTLEQUEENDOM Event. See the similarities to NJPW? Well that is because it is a similar style tournament, with a block and points format. Australian Export Charli Evans qualified by defeating Laura Di Matteo at Pro Wresting Eve's Slayers in Spandex event on July 14, whilst Madison Eagles defeated Shazza McKenzie at PWA Call to Arms on August 11, showing both had to defeat world class talent to qualify for this exclusive league. So how did these two superstars fare against some of the best independent wrestlers on the planet?

Charli Evans match 1: Charli Evans b Erin Angel

Charli's first opponent in the She-1 was the 15 year veteran Erin Angel. Trained by the legendary Doug Williams Erin has wrestled for the likes of IPW, Rise, Bellatrix and of course Pro Wrestling Eve.

Charli works as a heel and immediately draws the ire of the crowd. Erin enters to S Club 7's "Bring It All Back" and I think you would be hard pressed to find a more babyface song to enter to than that one with the crowd singing and clapping along just like so many UK audiences do. Erin Angel is for lack of a better term angelic in white in this match, while Charli is edgy and brooding in dark colours with her dark hair with the streak the coup de grace. A great contrast and a clear divide in this match.

The match starts with lockups, in which Charli Evans gets Erin Angel to the ground. Evans follows up with a nice shoulder block, before we see some nice arm drags and a hurricarana from Angel. Charli then delivers a big back suplex and shows her brawling heelish style, with some nasty strikes to the back of the head. Evans is just as diabolical when grappling, when whilst working Erin's shoulder, steps on her face to allow her greater capacity to generate torque. Another example is the headlock she applies to Erin Angel, where whilst she is sitting up, Charli Evans applies the headlock and also places her bodyweight onto the head and neck of Angel, just to make it that much more painful. Evans also applies a stretch muffler and when Angel refuses to submit, she proceeds to dump Erin on her head. This match is far from smooth sailing for Evans who ends up bleeding from the mouth after being hit with a cross body and face buster from Erin Angel. Despite having her moments in this contest, Erin Angel eats a huge knee from Evans and Charli hits her cradle DDT for the win and starts of her journey in this tourney on the right note with two points! This was a great match and Charli Evans showed she more than belongs in the big leagues.

Madison Eagles Match 1: Jamie Hayter b Madison Eagles

Jamie Hayter enters first and receives a massive chorus of boos for her trouble. But she is overconfident and really has no idea what she is in for, that is until AFI's haunting "Prelude 12/21" hits and the tall intimidating presence of Madison Eagles makes her impression on the crowd. Again this amazing crowd are singing along "kiss my eyes and lay me too sleep". The debuting Madison's aura gets to Jamie Hayter, who is as much in the corner as she can be as Madison with a big grin on her face, goes up to her and pats her on the head. Everyone (except Hayter) is loving Eagles including our commentators, who comment on Madison's attire, which lets face it, is amazing. We also get the "Oh Madison Eagles" chant to the 7 Nation Army melody. I wonder if these fans realise that this chant also manages to pay tribute to her and her brood, the Four Nations?

Jamie wants no part of this match, attempting to get out of the ring on a number of occasions before Madison just grabs her and drags her into the ring. This match was fantastic for a fan of Madison as the Master of Wrestling put on a technical wrestling masterclass, showing the variety of holds she has in her arsenal and similar to Zack Sabre Jr, she is not just satisfied with putting a hold on, Eagles will grab another limb or manipulate the hold making it all the more difficult to deal with. Madison dominated Hayter for the majority of this contest, not just applying stretches and submissions, but also clubbing her with strikes and hitting her signature corner spider suplex. Madison also manages to counter a lot of the offence that Jamie is trying to put together but unfortunately not when it counts as Hayter hits some big knee strikes and as Madison is trying to recover hits a huge curb stomp for the win. This was also a fantastic match and really showed the crowd and Pro Wrestling Eve fans what Madison Eagles is all about.

Madison Eagles Match 2: Viper b Madison Eagles

Here we got the Master of Wrestling versus the Vixen of Violence a wresting fan's dream match and it was a good one. Both wrestlers were very over with the crowd and Madison took advantage of the situation, offering a double high five before grabbing Viper's hands and twisting them into double wrist locks. Viper certainly had the brute strength advantage and Madison was also struggled to get Viper off her feet. Madison was certainly the more technically sound of the two and earned a gem from the commentary booth "Wrestling IQ higher than MENSA". In the matchup of Technical v Brute, the Brute go the nod here as Viper avoided a spider suplex from Madison, which left Eagles tied to the tree of woe and she ate a wicked cannonball in the corner from Viper which got the three count.

Charli Evans Match 2: Kris Wolf b Charli Evans

This was very much a comedy match for the opening portion as after receiving a few bites courtesy of Kris Wolf, Charli Evans requested the opportunity to wrestle Kris Wolf's Wlf headpiece, known as Tito. We had chants of RSPCA from the crowd as Evans german suplexed Tito and stomped on it. Evans also used Kris Wolf's tail against her, choking her with it and tying her to the ropes with it so she could do further damage to Tito. Buts this backfired in a big way, with Wolf firing up and after hitting a big dive to the outside on Charli, she hit a big swinging DDT for the 2 points.

Madison Eagles Match 3: Madison Eagles b Millie McKenzie

Millie enters the ring heavily strapped up due to her previous matches in the league, whilst Madison enters hungry for points. This combination led to a quick and nasty match, where Madison avoided Millie's signature German suplex and got her to the ground and locked in her STF with the injured shoulder incorporated into the hold. The Master of Wrestling gets her first points of the tournament, but with two points after her final match, she will not be progressing any further in the SHE-1.

Charli Evans Match 3: Charlie Morgan b Charli Evans

Charlie Morgan entered the SHE-1 as an alternate after Rhea O'Reilly was unable to finish the tournament. Charlie Morgan is the current champion of Pro Wrestling Eve, so this would be a huge scalp to claim and to prove you are in title contention. Charlie Morgan is an incredible wrestler in her own right and I would highly recommend watching some of her matches as she is such an phenomenal talent with all the attributes to succeed. We witnessed a fantastic technical wrestling match between these two stars and it showed that Charli Evans belongs in the title picture of Pro Wrestling Eve. Evans was able to apply some horrifying stretches that former teacher Madison Eagles would be proud of, even making the veins of Charlie Morgan's neck bulge at the pain. Despite coming so awfully close to winning this match, Evans was unable to defeat the reigning champion, who hit a gravity defying wall walk arm drag in her final momentum run to the win. Unfortunately Charli only finished on two points meaning she would not be taking any further part in the SHE-1.

BUT WAIT! HOLD THE PHONE! THIS AIN'T OVER! We were treated to a very special match on the final show of the SHE-1. Charli Evans took on Madison Eagles, Master vs former Apprentice, Teacher vs Student.

Madison Eagles b Charli Evans

"Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi" The UK crowd were incredible for all four shows and they were no different for this match, recognising both of these superstars hailed from Australia and pulled out the classic chant. Once again, we were treated to a fantastic technical encounter from these two warriors, however Evans showed the mean streak that she has, slamming Madison's head into a piece of the building overhanging the ring after avoiding Madison's spider suplex. This allowed Charli Evans to assume the control in this match. Eagles looked to be in trouble, but countered Charli by rolling through a hold and putting Evans into a scorpion looking leg and back stretch with ring awareness the only thing stopping Charli from tapping. Madison fires up at this point suplexing Evans into the turnbuckle and hitting her with solid strikes. Eagles follows up with a spider suplex and a savage short arm lariat. Eagles locks in her masterful STF and this one is over. This was my favourite of all of the matches over the SHE-1 weekend, with both wrestlers putting in a great performance and conquering as the hashtag states.

The crowd applauds Evans as she leaves the ring and Madison gets well deserved "please come back" chants. The crowd and the crew fell in love with the Master of Wrestling with even the ring announcer stating her husband would be mad as she just fell in love with Eagles.

You’re at a local Australian wrestling show. Just a few bars after Leikeli47’s “Money” hits a tall, lean figure appears. A guy a parent would hate to see their child bring through the door of the family home. Peroxide blonde hair, a red solo cup, a throwback jersey, a cocky smile, swagger and tights that pay homage to the NBA and no I’m not talking about the National Basketball Association. I’m talking about the Natural Born Athlete, the 21st Century success story, the most handsome in Australian professional wrestling, the fresh as f#$% member of the BABES franchise, Matty Wahlberg.

The NSW based Wahlberg has only been around for a small period of time, but like an NCAA standout would, Matty has entered the big leagues in a massive way, making tidal waves wherever he goes. He has the build of an athlete, the confidence of an elite champion and the skills to match. He isn’t suffering from Sophomore syndrome either ascending to the top of several promotions, most recently winning the Future Wrestling Australia Heavyweight Championship, along with being the Silver Medalist for Wrestling GO! and after claiming Kings of the Castle 2018 with his brother in arms “The World’s Finest” Carter Deams, Wahlberg threw down his gauntlet in a moment Edge wold be jealous of to become the Newcastle Pro Wrestling Middleweight champion. That would be more than enough for most (sounds exhausting!), but not for Matty who has the cravings that any superstar does to consume more and more on the path to success and that hunger has taken him to Pro Wrestling Australia (PWA), International Wrestling Australia (IWA), Riot City Wrestling in Adelaide (RCW) and Rock ‘n Roll Wrestling. He is also set to wrestle with Carter Deams as BABES at the inaugural Pro Wrestling League event on the Gold Coast, competing against the Social Media Squad and Street Revolution on November 17, defends his newly acquired FWA Championship on November 24 at Future Wrestling Australia Diamond edition, two shows for Wrestling Go on November 10th and December 16th, as well as PWA have the privilege of BABES hosting their next Black Label event at Max Watt’s Sydney, aptly titled “Friday’s are for the BABES” on December 7.

I regularly attend PWA Black Label shows and I have been given a first hand look at his in ring prowess as both a singles competitor and as a tag team. As I have stated in my review of Colosseum, BABES are one of the most athletically intimidating and imposing teams in Australia and have one of the best looking double team moves, a posterising leapfrog curb stomp combination. But while Carter has been training at Fale Dojo in New Zealand, Matty has been handling his business just fine on his own (see accomplishments above), showing that these guys are like a Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant together but are also one man teams in their own right. Matty has a background in MMA and it only bolsters his learned wrestling skills. Matty has also had an auditioning Jax Jordan try and get into BABES, which had a huge payoff at Colosseum, with Jax Jordan being cut from the BABES and his now “BABES blonde” long locks also received the snip. Matty is also the major player in one of the highlights of the current format which is the intermission, where the ‘Natural Born Athlete’ shows his fine stroke at Beer Pong, taking on the winner of a raffle who has the opportunity to win cold hard cash if and only if, they can somehow overcome this phenom of beer pong. But his stroke along with his elite sledging, all so far have failed. Matty also likes to take the mic in hand at this point, usually throwing barbs at the crowd, his opponent for the evening, along with Triple M DJ Rose, who is part of the commentary team at PWA currently. A quick search of Matty Wahlberg’s Facebook page and you will find a fantastic collection of his high class promo work featuring his pop culture ridden brain (Augustus Gloop looking Motherf&*!er may be the greatest sledge I have ever heard), sharp tongue and his in ring prowess. His Matty Wahlberg vs PWA video from Call to Arms was superb which features a Conor McGregor style promo, where it appears he might apologise, before telling everyone where to go. Matty is active on all of his social media accounts and is well worth a follow (Will list his social media handles at the end of this blog).

It seems the New South Wales wrestling scene cannot get enough of the “21st Success story”, he is popping up everywhere and its not hard to see why. The man moves like a lightweight and hits like a heavyweight, is incredible on the microphone and is an undefeated beer pong champion at PWA Black Label! He’s only in year two and he is one of the hottest free agents in this game. There is certainly an argument that the guy is in the conversation for Most Valuable Player of the NSW Wrestling Scene this year. But provided he wants it, there is plenty of wrestling available in every other state and after already appearing in PWA, it will hopefully open doors for him to promotions like EPW in Perth, Wrestle Rampage in Adelaide and Melbourne City Wrestling in Melbourne and based on the 2018 that Wahlberg had, it could be a pretty special 2019 home and away season. The man is an irresistible force and whether it be with Carter Deams in BABES or on his own solo run, expect Wahlberg go deep into the title picture and to posterise the competition wherever he takes his talents for years to come.

A Saturday night in meant a fantastic opportunity to watch some Australian Professional Wrestling, so I went ahead and rented WRESTLE RAMPAGE: GROUND ZERO from Wrestle Rampages’s Vimeo page. This show has a plethora of Australian talent, headlined by the Australian National Champion, “The King of Monsters” Jonah Rock, taking on his student and friend, Rat Daddy. When you go and rent or purchase this one yourself - Both options under $10.00! do yourself a favour (Sorry Molly) and search out Wrestle Rampage’s facebook page, give it a like and watch Jonah’s #NoMoreCheese promo along with the response video from Rat Daddy, as they were both amazing and certainly got me very interested in this event. If i lived in the surrounds of the venue, I would have attended this show based on the beautifully designed poster alone which featured Rat Daddy front and centre, flanked by the ‘Aussie Arrow’ Kyle Fletcher and Charli Evans, flanked again by ‘Punch Drunk’ Istria and the ‘World Beater’ Damian Slater, with a menacing ‘King of Monsters’ Jonah Rock hulking over them all in the background.

The video opens with the crowd counting down from 10 to lead us into the Wrestle Rampage title video, giving the viewer a taste of the sort of action to expect from a Wrestle Rampage show along with the superstars, some very familiar and some not so much for a Sydney based wrestling fan, which is exciting to see what I have been missing out on! The show itself opens with a song that the current Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the Federal Liberal party mae be already trying extremely hard to forget in Fatman Scoop’s part classic “Be Faithful”. Our announce team of Luke, Matt and Ticia come to the ring, to cheers from the crowd. Luke grabs the microphone and advises that the Wrestle Rampage commissioner Benjamin Rosenthal is not in the building tonight meaning that in his absence, who better to run things than Luke himself. Luke runs down some of the action to expect throughout the evening including the Australian returns of Kyle Fletcher and Charli Evans, who have been killing it all over the world but in the United Kingdom and Europe in particular, Damian Slater going one on one with ‘Punch Drunk’ Istria and in the main event, Jonah Rock battling Rat Daddy with the Australian National Title on the line. Luke does mention that there may be a surprise or two as well.

A couple of classic songs as ring entrances for this one, with Vanity Inc and Dean Valente entering the arena to the Tina Turner belter “Simply the Best” whilst former member of Vanity Inc, the ‘heart throb’ Corey Adams came out to Pat Benetar’s smash “Heartbreaker”, so I was ready to rock out with all six men in this encounter. I had never seen any of these wrestlers in action before, so this was a great match to introduce me to Wrestle Rampage in general and the way the match unfolded, I got to see them all on offence in different moments throughout the match. It really was a back and forth contest to start, with each team taking turns running through their offence, trying to be the team to get the upper hand in the match. Shout out to Tyler Trench in particular who is a formidable, terrorising (not Terra Rizing) human, throwing his partner Kazaran Crowe like a literal spear to hit a spear on Willy Gibson! But it would be Vanity Inc to be that team, isolating Kazaran Crowe from the rest of his team for a good portion of the match. Crowe ended up creating an opening, which allowed him to get the hot tag to Corey Adams who went to town on his former stable mates, but chaos certainly ensued as both teams took turns having a 3 on 1 advantage in the ring. We saw a nice high spot from Corey Adams on his opponent with a dive for the top turnbuckle to the outside and the Heart Throb broke the hearts of Vanity Inc Dean Valente when he hit the elbow drop from the top rope for the w. This was a nice match to kick off the show, but celebrations didn’t last long as a disgruntled Dean Valente, Gorgeous Greg and Willy Gibson attacked Trench, Crowe and Adams. But wait! the lights go out, back on and in the middle of the ring is EINAR IRONSIDE! Back form representing Iceland, he has returned to clean house taking out Valente, Greg and Gibson, before starting a viking clap with those in attendance, whilst paying respect to the victors of the match. Wow, didn’t have to wait long for a surprise!

“Who needs Benjamin Rosenthal?” Luke proudly questions rhetorically.

Robby Heart def. Nick Golfis

Robby Heart’s music hits first and he looks every bit the darkest soul, complete with wet hair, white face paint and his “Goth Life” tank. His opponent on this occasion is “The Sniper” Nick Golfis who had a fun little teasing twitter exchange with the other Robbie and Sniper of Australian wrestling Eagles, which might be a match to look forward to down the road.

Robby Heart rushed Nick Golfis the second the bell rang, getting him into the corner with some aggressive striking. Golfis however, establishes ring control, forcing Heart to leave the ring, but this allowed Golfis to deliver a devastating soccer kick to Heart’s chest and the thud could be heard very clearly on the stream; he did not miss. The action at this stage returns to the ring, with the “part time commentator, full time arse kicker” Golfis calling for a lariat, only to be nailed with one himself for his trouble. Ring control then goes the way of Heart, who locks on a nasty camel clutch, but fortunately Golfis is able to get his arms free and struggle his way to the ropes to earn the break. Golfis then eats two running clotheslines in the corner before countering an attempted third one with a running bicycle kick on a running Robby Heart. Nick Golfis also shows off a beautiful move he has named the JPJ breaker on twitter, which was a shoulder breaker from an air raid siren position (check it and the soccer kick on Nick Golfis’ twitter). Despite this valiant effort from Golfis, the pendulum of momentum swung back in the favour of Heart delivering a sit out scoop slam on Golfis, allowing him to climb the corner turnbuckle and hit a big splash for the finish. Another solid match on this card with two people that I am relatively unfamiliar with being a Sydney based wrestling fan. Really enjoyed it and was impressed with what I saw.

Ticia Rose then makes her way to the ring to announce the next match which will be Charli Evans vs Joanie May

Charli Evans def. Joanie May

Charli Evans makes her return to Australia after moving to the UK to pursue her dream of being a professional wrestler. She has been wrestling everywhere, including Shimmer, Progress, IPW, Pro Wrestling Eve, Rise and like Madison Eagles, has qualified for the upcoming Pro Wrestling Eve She-1. This was a phenomenal opportunity for Joanie May, to wrestle someone of the global experience of Charli Evans.

The second Charli Evans makes her way through the curtain, she begins arguing with audience members, establishing herself as the heel straight away. Joanie with her Rockabilly style comes out to a fun cover of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”, making her way around the ring to high five members of the audience.

The first exchange we get, after Evans interacts more with members of the audience is some technical action, with a towering Joanie May grabbing an arm, but Charli was able to reverse using the pressure of the reverse to get Joanie onto the mat and while the crowd was clapping for Joanie, Charlie mocked them by clapping her hand with Joanie’s, which was very clever. Joanie then had a nice wrist lock hold on Charli in the middle of the ring, however that experience and ring awareness of Charli Evans came into play, using an outstretched leg to reach the ropes and force the break. Joanie May then put together a nice little combination of strikes definitely establishing herself as the bigger and stronger of the two. This was short lived however, as Charli Evans countered a corner move attempt and got Joanie to the ground, showing the streak in her hair is not the only streak in this match, as she showed a mean streak with relentless stomping of May and choking her using the bottom rope.

Charli then applies a horrifying submission on May, using her leg to pin both the head and left arm of May before using this position to generate powerful torque on a shoulder wrench, again using the outstretched arm to mock the crowd clapping for May. Joanie fires up after rolling out of the submission and receiving one too many strikes in the face from Charli Evans, hitting some nice clotheslines and a snap reverse DDT. Charli Evans would regain control again, showing some more of this vicious streak she has brought home, with a shining wizard along with some brutal kicks in the face. Joanie dug deep and found one last effort, in the form of a backslide pin, but Evans rolled out and set Joanie up for a package DDT, which she hit and ended the match. This was a good match, with Joanie getting a fantastic opportunity to work with one of the world’s best in Evans, who it was good to see back on our shores.

‘Punch Drunk’ Istria def Damian Slater

This is Damian Slater’s return to Wrestle Rampage after his suspension and there was no easy match back against ‘Punch Drunk’, who demanded this match of Benjamin Rosenthal according to the commentary team. I am not going to write much about this one, because you should search it out and watch it as it was my pick for match of the evening. It was a phenomenal technical chain wrestling match. There was plenty of both men’s incredible ground games on display, which comes from years of training in both wrestling and MMA. Both men showing high quality in all areas of the match and showing a variety of martial arts styles with some quality throws and striking also on display. This match went back and forth for it’s entirety and was anyones’s for the taking. Just as the ‘World Beater’ Slater looked mohave the match won, Robby Heart came to the ringing attempted to hit Slater with mist, but missed. Heart definitely did his job though as a distracted Slater allowed Istria to hit a wonderful flying armbar-kneebar combo for the submission. Great Match.

Tommy Knight def. Kyle Fletcher

Exactly like Charli Evans, ‘Aussie Arrow’ Kyle Fletcher has been based in the UK, Wrestling all over Europe in singles action, as well as a cohesive unit with fellow Ex- Pat Mark Davis as ‘Aussie Open’ and returned back home for a brief stay. Thankfully he did take a booking and it was against ‘The Prodigy’ Tommy Knight. Unlike Charli Evans however, Kyle seemed to have much more respect for his opponent, with the two shaking hands to kick things off. The first thing you notice about Tommy Knight is how strong he is, giving Kyle Fletcher all sorts of trouble in the opening exchanges in this contest. Kyle could not seem to get Knight off his feet, just unable to get the force even with several seconds of running the ropes to build momentum in a fun spot. Despite his frame, the next thing you notice about the prodigy is his athleticism, leapfrogging Fletcher and flipping over a grounded Fletcher. Knight appealed to the crowd for some appreciation and got it in spades, with the crowd very impressed. Again, much like Charlie Evans, ‘Aussie Arrow’ needed to show a bit of a mean streak to get some ascendancy in this one, throwing Knight into the barriers on the outside and stomping Knight heavily against the bottom rope when the action continued in the squared circle. But still despite this, Fletcher still had massive problems getting Knight off his feet, unable to knock him over with strikes or lariats. Tommy on the other hand, was able to throw Kyle around with ease. Kyle had to be innovative to get back into this contest and got an open when he though Knight through the ropes, knocked him to the outside and followed up with a tope suicida. With Knight back in the ring, Fletcher climbed to the top rope, but before he could even consider doing anything, Knight launched himself into the corner and delivered a superplex, before rolling the hips, holding Fletcher and delivering a tour of the islands on the Aussie Arrow. Fletcher did dig deep, hitting the Lawn Dart on ‘The Prodigy’ who still had the fight left to kick out. A frustrated Fletcher, despite failed attempts before, went into a striking exchange again with Knight, which ultimately left him leaving his back open and ‘The Prodigy’ rolled the ‘Aussie Arrow’ into a textbook rear naked choke and this one was over. A fantastic match and showed both men have massive futures in this game.

Mike Boomer cut a promo to kick off this one stating the competitors had two choices, kiss his feet and join him and his follower Brother Bellows or leave now. Jax Jordan was having none of that and attacked Boomer first. This was a really fun match that saw everyone have an opportunity to show what they have got. ‘Party Boy’ vs ‘Loverboy’ was fun, along with Link Barnett unleashing hip attacks galore. I found myself mimicking Lover Boy, yelling “LOVERBOY SON!” at my monitor because I am weird like that. Mike Boomer unfortunately spoiled the Wrestle Rampage debut of Jax Jordan, hitting a low blow on Jordan after a distraction by Brother Bellows, following a Killswitch DDT and a pin with the ropes assist for good measure. 1,2,3 and Boomer retains the Cruiserweight Cup. Like I said, really fun match and was great to Jax Jordan over in Wrestle Rampage for the first time.

Australian National Championship Match: Jonah Rock and Rat Daddy ended in a No Contest.

Before you watch this match, you should dig out the promo videos of both men. Jonah Rock’s #NoMoreCheese video and Rat Daddy’s incredible response video. Wrestle Rampage’s Facebook page should have both easily accessible.

It’s battle of the theme songs for me Pusha T’s “Numbers on the Boards” for Rat Daddy vs "Death Grips “Guillotine” for Jonah. A photo finish one in my book, with Jonah just getting it. This encounter was Sensei vs Student, Rat Daddy’s breakout year vs Jonah’s Belt collecting year. The contest commences with Jonah giving Rat Daddy a Wet Willy after holding him in position with wrist control. Rat Daddy has a rather obvious size disadvantage against ‘The King of Monsters’ Jonah Rock and has terrible difficulty doing anything. He does however hit a nice Hurricarana which leads to getting Jonah to the outside he then follows up with another hurricarana into the guard rail. Jonah however is as tough as they come and seems relatively unfazed by this attacks. Jonah takes Rat Daddy into the crowd, fighting him to the bar before spitting a punter’s beer into Rat Daddy’s face. Jonah takes Rat Daddy back towards the ring, not before a detour via a fan with a #NoMoreCheese sign and whacking Rat Daddy with it, before Rat Daddy responds in kind. Rat Daddy then uses a wheelchair on ‘The King of Monsters’, ramming him with it. After basically travelling the entire perimeter of the building, the combatants return to the ring, with Jonah in control. Jonah misses a back senton and is tripped into the corner by Rat Daddy. Rat Daddy’s swiftness and speed come into play against a weary Jonah Rock here and this leads to a momentum crushing Canadian destroyer from Rat Daddy on Jonah Rock. Incredible stuff. Rat Daddy appears to be caught in a compromising position before hitting a sunset flip bomb on Rock! Snapmare Driver on Rock! both only get two counts. Jonah at this point wrestles back control (pun intended) hitting DDT to stop Rat Daddy’s momentum dead. After a series of moves, Rat Daddy is lying defenceless on the floor and Jonah calls for the moonsault. As Jonah reaches the top rope, Rat Daddy recovers reaching Jonah to deliver an astounding Super Sit Out Powerbomb! Rat Daddy does not cover, instead climbing the turnbuckle himself, only for Jonah to recover to deliver a top rope superplex to Rat Daddy with ‘Holy Shit’ chants from the crowd. Both men can barely get to their feet at this point. Somehow after all the exchanges, Rat Daddy uses Jonah’s momentum to get him up on his shoulders to deliver a Ratitude Adjustment but can only get a 2 count. Rat Daddy follows up with a cross body and curb stomp and can only AGAIN manage a two count. Jonah replies in just as incredible fashion, hitting a piledriver with Rat Daddy’s arms pinned and a brain buster and both time Rat Daddy kicks out! Neither man willing to surrender to the other. Rat Daddy hits three super kicks but still is unable to put the Australian National Champion away. After a brief exchange, Rat Daddy super kicks the referee by accident and cops a huge lariat from Jonah Rock. A phenomenal match but we are cheated out of a finish as Robby Heart then enters the ring and attacks Rat Daddy, whilst Istria attacks Jonah Rock. The referee comes to and declares it a no contest. Damian Slater then runs in for the save, attacking Heart and Istria allowing Rock and Daddy to come to and return serve. With Rock holding Istria in position, Slater goes for a bicycle kick but misses, Istria instead hitting TMDK teammate Jonah Rock. At this point the locker room empties to put a stop to the chaos.

This leads to an announcement for Wrestle Rampage: All or Nothing Saturday December 1 - Jonah Rock defends the Australian National Championship against Rat Daddy, Robby Heart, Istria and Damian Slater and NO DQ! there must be a winner!

This was the first Wrestle Rampage card I have watched and it was thoroughly enjoyable. Solid contests throughout and the event itself told an individual story that didn’t matter that i had not seen previous shows before. I will certainly be watching plenty more Wrestle Rampage in future. Make sure you check out the show on Wrestle Rampage’s Vimeo to rent for only $4.99 for two and half hours of great entertainment!

“The Spud” will be the place where you find this Spud providing opinions about a variety of topics about the amazing, artistic and athletic form of entertainment known as professional wrestling. As this great sport of ours is loved by many, it means that our opinions will differ from time to time and that is OK. You are as entitled to your view as I am to mine, the only difference being I am silly enough to blog mine. My first piece is on why I believe there has never been a better time to be a fan of Australian professional wrestling. Enjoy and let me know what you think.

I am writing this on Halloween night and at this moment with still two full months of 2018 to go, it has been a monumental year for professional wrestling in Australia. In no particular order, just some of the accomplishments include:

Buddy Murphy and the Iiconics star at the WWE Super Showdown at the Melbourne Cricket Ground

Toni Storm wins the Mae Young Classic

Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher and Mark Davis) win the Progress Tag Team Titles in the Thunderbastard tag team match at their “Hello Wembley” spectacular.

Gino Gambino defends the Melbourne City Wrestling title in Europe and answers Trent Seven’s Atlas title open challenge at a Progress Chapter show.

Rhea Ripley becomes the inaugural WWE UK Women’s Champion

Robbie Eagles joins the Bullet Club OGs, competes with Taiji Ishiimori in the Super Jr Tag league, submitting the legendary Jushin Thunder Liger in his debut for New Japan Pro Wrestling

Ancient Order of the Nations (AKA the 4 Nations) reach the final of the 2018 Chikara King of Trios Tournament.

Madison Eagles defeats Mike Quackenbush at the King of Trios weekend

Nick Aldis defends the prestigious NWA Title AKA the Ten Pounds of Gold against Jack Bonza, Jonah Rock, Robbie Eagles and Mark Cometti on Australian soil during the House of Hardcore Australian tour

UK based product Progress Wrestling came to Australia having incredible collaboration shows with PWA, MCW and EPW.

Some of Australia’s best including TMDK, Robbie Eagles, Mick Moretti and Jack Bonza compete agains NJPW superstars during the NJPW tour of Australia.

Elliot Sexton competes in several Progress shows on their United States tour.

Jonah Rock, Robbie Eagles and Adam Brooks compete at BOLA 2018

Shazza McKenzie appears on NXT TV against Kairi Sane

Robbie Eagles tears down the house (again) against Will Ospreay at PWA Call to Arms 2018.

The Filip Brothers, Indi Hartwell, Shazza McKenzie, Jessica Troy among other wow United States audiences as they toured the country.

Paris De Silva coined ‘Paris De Gif’ by Mick Moretti after two GIFs of his incredible athleticism (and that of his sparring partners) go viral - There is also a phenomenal Mario Kart one that needs to come back, it is outstanding.

Mick Moretti provides the Australian Wrestling Scene (and the New Zealand one for that matter) a new hashtag - #NowWeConquer - signalling the next stage of the A + NZ’s plan to take over wrestling, after already being noticed.

MCW 100 - a phenomenal achievement in itself, but in front of a record crowd.

Madison Eagles qualifying for Pro Wrestling Eve’s She-1 tournament

I could continue, as these are just some of the highlights of what has truly been a special year of Australian Wrestling. All the performers, the promoters, the crew and the fans, thank you for your contributions to making it a year to remember. Everywhere you look in professional wrestling, there is an Australian wrestler tearing things up. Australian talents are at the peak of their powers. So it begs the question, if you are not familiar with the Australian Wrestling scene, to quote a memorable piece of Australian tourism history, “Where the bloody hell are you?”. I am sorry for quoting that, but seriously, what are you doing? We have some of the world’s best talent wrestling in our cities and are you just going to wait until they are announced “from Sydney Australia” on a WWE show before you take notice? Not all wrestling promotions are created equal, but there are some incredible wrestling promotions in every state, putting in the hard yards to take this scene to the next level, with wrestlers who love this thing so much that they work 9 to 5, whilst attending wrestling training, whilst dieting, whilst going to the gym, whilst studying, whilst looking after dependents, whilst paying bills. Wrestlers who are just as good as many currently living off of wrestling full time. Imagine how good these wrestlers would actually be if they could let go of the 9 to 5 or the study with casual job and were able to devote more time to their passions.

A number of Australian wrestlers if they were able to save up, pack their lives up and move overseas would succeed anywhere in the world. But a lot of them want to able to live off of wrestling here in Australia and see the scene boom here, whilst still having their homes, their families, their pets, their friends and their lives. That is where you come in. Go and support your local Australian wrestling shows. Tickets are cheaper then going to your favourite sporting team’s home game and you are guaranteed to get more nail biting, riveting stories. Stream some of the big events from promotions you can’t attend for cheaper than your Netflix subscription or a rental on the iTunes store. There is no excuse, support the local product, just like you would “Australian Made” products. Follow these talented young people watch them achieve them ascend to wherever they want to get to, whether that is touring Australia regularly or hoisting a WWE championship on their shoulder. I am sorry to sound preachy, but I am really excited about the amazing product available in Australia. You don’t have to look world wide, it is in our own backyard.

For those that are fans and have heard all of the above before, I have a favour to ask of you. Choose a friend that is a fan of WWE, IMPACT, NJPW, ROH etc but is unfamiliar with your favourite local promotion. It might take some convincing at first, but take them to the next show, immerse them in what we all know and love. More likely than not, they will ask you about the next show afterwards. I took my brother to PWA Colosseum, he is hooked and can’t wait until PWA’s Friday’s are for the Babes in December. Word of mouth is priceless marketing and if you love what you are seeing, you should be telling everyone you can. and getting them to go and see if for themselves. You have a part to play in getting wrestling in Australia to the next level.

For those looking for some guidance to get them down into the rabbit hole that is Australian professional wrestling, check out the following for starters:

PWA: Colosseum

MCW: New Horizons

Wrestle Rampage: Ground Zero

EPW’s Vendetta 2018

Progress x PWA, Progress x MCW, Progress EPW

MCW 100

PWA: Call to Arms 2018

Conco and the Fudge Podcast - Hosted by two fantastic performers which will also introduce you to some of the best running around Australia at the moment.

Wrestle Radio Australia Podcast: Todd Eastman interviews an Australian Wrestling figure and promotes wrestling shows around the country

I don’t want to give you too much too soon, so I will leave you with those to start. Pretty sure in no time you will be messaging me telling me what to watch!

Thank you for reading the first “spud”, I appreciate it. There truly has never been a better time to be an Australian wrestling fan. Just look at all those huge highlights above. Fly the flag for your local promotion! Fly the flag for Australian Professional Wrestling!

On Sunday 23rd September 2018, Melbourne Wrestling fans were treated to a fun, new collaboration between Australian professional wrestling powerhouse MCW (or Melbourne City Wrestling) and Evie’s Disco Diner, an energetic converted warehouse venue on Gertrude Street in Fitzroy. This coming together was simply titled: G.L.O.W. I.R.L., or those not down with the abbreviations, the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling In Real Life! As it’s marketing for the event would suggest, it was at least partially inspired by the 80s phenomenon, which was recently recreated as a fictional Netflix show starring Alison Brie, Betty Gilpin and Marc Maron. However, on this night it was not Hollywood’s best actors on display, but rather fans were presented with some of Australia’s best wrestlers in Erika Reid, Avary, Vixsin, Chanel Phoenix (MCW Debut), Indi Hartwell and KellyAnne.

The night played out as follows: Three one on one matches, where the victor would progress to the final, which would be a triple threat elimination match to determine the first Queen of G.L.O.W I.R.L. This was complete with crown, which was reported in jest to be valued at $250,000. This event actually sold out in three days, such was the interest surrounding the collaboration and I myself had to rent this special event on MCW Encore on Vimeo (https://vimeo.com/melbcitywrestling), which came out this past weekend. There was no commentary, which was a great move as it would have been a logistical nightmare, but it also gave a great indication of the energy in the venue, as you could hear every chant, every bit of banter, the instructions from the official laying down the law and every “DIE ERIKA!” from Avary. The venue itself looked fantastic, A cosy spot, with booths for people (and KellyAnne), to enjoy their meals and above the ring was a great balcony that flanked it. I don’t believe there would have been too many bad viewing locations in the house.

The show commenced in style and I’m not talking about the announcers Hawaiian shirt, as we got to witness the talented Avary taking on the always dangerous and intriguing Erika Reid. The Dreamtime Voodoo Witch wanted to instil mutual respect and sportsmanship, but was met with the saliva of the wrestler that really puts the brat in Brat Pack, as Avary spat straight on Erika’s hand. Erika, just smiled; unfazed by what had just occurred, before licking up the saliva, unleashing a primal scream and unloading on Avary. Both of these wrestlers are super talented and this was on display in this match with both wrestlers dishing out some solid offence. Erika had what appeared to be a ‘Last Chancery’ style bridging STF, but Avary was able to get to the ropes. Despite missing her first attempt at a fisherman DDT, Avary countered a bicycle kick attempt from Reid into the fisherman DDT for the win and became the first competitor to progress through to the final later in the evening.

Banshee like screams and the ‘Simon Says’ instrumental can mean only one thing: The Hardcore Bitch. Vixsin is an intimidating monster and if you need any evidence of this, watch this event on Encore and watch her scare the pants off both the referee and the announcer simultaneously. Wow. The other thing we go to see in this match was the MCW debut of Chanel Phoenix, who did start off with a flurry in this contest. However, the “Hardcore Bitch” battered and bruised Chanel with her arsenal including savage chops, choking Phoenix using the top rope and even a submission. Chanel Phoenix showed great heart here, escaping the submission and eating so much punishment, but Vixsin delivered a fatal one two punch in the form of a lariat and hip drop pin for the win. Phoenix certainly earned the respect of Vixsin who raised her arm after the match, before celebrating her win.

Indi Hartwell had some fun schtick with the announcer and her “Impressive” coat, whilst KellyAnne was encouraging those in attendance to enjoy their meals, whilst fist bumping them on her way to the ring. After a few “I’m not Ready”s from Indi, KellyAnne go the first offence of this match, with a fish hook style finger in the mouth STF and a hair pull STF as well. After further back and forth between the two and Hartwell still not ready, KellyAnne left the ring and sat with a spectator, enjoying some of the potato gems on offer. In general, the leader of the fiend club had great banter with the crowd. Once the action returned to the ring, the impressive one took control for a while. Indi Hartwell had some fun with the referee and how both quickly and slowly his counts were, illegal hold vs pinfall attempt respectively. Indi also singled out one of KellyAnne’s fans Nick in the crowd, calling him out on a couple of occasions during the match. Despite the threat of an “Impressive” F5, KellyAnne was able to knock Indi into the corner with a spinning forearm which were followed by two devastating cannonballs and this one was over.

Queen of G.L.O.W. I.R.L. Final - KellyAnne def. Vixsin and Avary to be crowned the Inaugural Queen of G.L.O.W I.R.L.

From the outset, Avary knew she needed a gameplan and what better one than to team with Vixsin to take out KellyAnne. With a little persuasion, the Hardcore Bitch was in! The team quickly dissolved after Avary tried to steal Vixsin’s cover on KellyAnne. Vixsin battled with Avary through the crowd and punters drinks ended up over each competitor. The action returned to the ring with Avary and KellyAnne taking each other to task, until Vixsin re-entered the fray, leading to an excellent Superplex Powerbomb spot by all three competitors. KellyAnne and Vixsin briefly teamed up to remove Avary from the match by way of spinning forearm from Kelly Anne and a choke powerbomb from Vixsin. KellyAnne and Vixsin battled briefly before Vixsin hit a hip drop on KellyAnne, which she countered into pin and got the victory. The show ended with KellyAnne crowned the Queen of G.L.O.W I.R.L and celebrating with the crowd.

This was a fun show to watch so I can only imagine how fun it was to actually be there, especially with the 80s fancy dress and jovial crowd. It was a great showcase of some of the talent in MCWs ranks and would have been a fun sized treat for your typical wrestling fan and a great introduction to the great Australian wrestling scene for someone unfamiliar with the local product or professional wrestling at all. If you have an hour up your sleeve, get onto https://vimeo.com/melbcitywrestling and rent the show, you won’t regret it. A second G.L.O.W. I.R.L. has already been announced for Sunday November 25 with Impact Knockouts Champion Tessa Blanchard involved, so it will be interesting to see who MCW also puts into the second instalment of what I hope to be a long running collaboration.

Last night PWA: Black Label returned to Max Watts in Sydney for the commencement of their inaugural Colosseum tournament featuring eight of Australia’s best wrestlers battling it out to be crowned the best in Australia. The fans in attendance were treated to a very special night of wrestling and hopefully I can give you just a taste of how fantastic it was. But it goes without saying, once this how is up on PWAplay.com, you need to watch it!

It was a jovial crowd in attendance last night and you only needed Diego our Ring announcer/MC/Compere to start walking to the ring to know that. It’s pretty good when a ring announcer asks if you are ready for the night’s action and you are met with a deafening yes. Diego wasted no time getting the night started as like all of us, he too wanted to sink his teeth into this tournament that had been so wonderfully hyped up by the Video packages announcing the eight competitors who had been noticed.

Colosseum Round One Match - Unsocial Jordan def. Kyle Fletcher

Our first match of the evening was also the first match of the Colosseum tournament where the “Aussie Arrow”Kyle Fletcher battled against Unsocial Jordan, and in my opinion we were treated to the match of the evening first up. Unsocial Jordan is the premier heel wrestler in PWA at the moment and draws nuclear heat, particularly when he asks those at an 18+ event to refrain from the use of profanity during his match. Kyle Fletcher made quite the homecoming, entering the Colosseum to “Close your eyes and count to F$@k”, the Run The Jewels track that Aussie Open (Fletcher and his Tag Team partner Mark ‘Dunkzilla’ Davis) use as their anthem as they have been conquering Tag Team divisions across Europe. These two had a wonderful match and really had the crowd invested from pillar to post. We were shown why Kyle Fletcher has been so successful in such a short span of time and we were also shown why Unsocial Jordan had been undefeated in PWA up to this point in 2018. Brutal strikes, high flying spots along with plenty of unique offence saw these Gentlemen very hard to separate in a back and forth contest. Ultimately though, just as Kyle Fletcher was getting the upper hand, two members of the Social Media Squad (SMS) returned in Facebrooke and Snapchad who like most people’s social media accounts, had a very short memory as they had forgotten about being called “Jobbers” for the past four months as they assisted Jordan, who picked up the first win of the night and the Colosseum tournament opening round with the use of his Camera Tripod. Such a great match and SMS drew amazing beat as they were booed to the back and left the fans wondering “Why Facebrooke Why?” And “Why Snapchad Why?” Kyle, who had great support from the Crowd for the entirety of the match, received a great ovation from the Sydney crowd, who were very pleased to see one of the frontline Soldiers on the European front of the #NowWeConquer campaign return to our shores if even only for just one night.

Adam Hoffman won the PWA Battle Royale for a PWA championship opportunity

A plethora of PWA talent made their way down to the ring for an over the top rope Battle Royale which Diego announced would provide the winner with a PWA Championship opportunity. The competitors were included but not limited to JT Robinson, Bel Pierce, Zena, Adam Hoffman, Luchikai and Big Fudge. This was a fun match which saw the Prefects eliminated for being underage, Big Fudge bringing out a garbage bag full of garbage to reprise his role as “THE GARBAGE MAN!” And a strong performance from Adam Hoffman, who showed every bit of his experience in this Battle Royale, picking his shots which saw him ultimately get the final elimination for Bel Pierce by Powerbombing her over the top rope onto a recently eliminated JT Robinson. Adam Hoffman, then cut a promo stating his frustration about not being included in the Colosseum tournament and stating injury had set him back. He then proceeded to call out the man who had caused this injury, the PWA Champion Caveman Ugg and we were then treated to an impromptu title match.

Caveman Ugg (c) def Adam Hoffman to retain the PWA Championship.

This was short and sweet, with Caveman Ugg, overwhelming Adam Hoffman with his incredible strength putting him away quickly and showing why he is on top of the perch and the PWA Champion. Ugg as always was extremely well received by the crowd with the Ugg chants flooding the arena.

Full Force Matt Rogers def.Mat Diamond and Jude ‘The Dude’ London.

Matt Rogers is a monster of a man who definitely lives up to the moniker of “Full Force”. He generates so much power in everything he does and that made this night extremely difficult for Mat Diamond and Jude London. Having said that Mat Diamond and The Dude were able to put Matt Rogers Down on the outside for a while, but eventually was able to recover and pick up the scraps left behind by Jude the Dude London, pinning Mat Diamond for the win. Jude got on the mic and pointed out how things hadn’t been going the Velocities’ (Jude the Dude London and Paris De Silva) way lately with defeat often being snapped from the jaws of victory and this was quite often due to a numbers issue. Jude said he had spoken to Paris and they needed to recruit some new Velocities members to which he then asked Mat Diamond if he wanted to bring his experience to the fold of the Velocities. “Steel City Strong” accepted and Newcastle has become the newest city on the Velocities! Matt Rogers who has been slowly walking towards the back was told to wait by Jude, because he wasn’t done yet. Jude advised that they had speed and experience, but they needed an enforcer and offered him a membership into the Velocities. Matt Rogers stormed back to the ring grabbed the mike and let’s just say he “politely declined” their offer.

Colosseum Round 1 match - Jack Bonza def. AJ Istria

The second match we were treated to in the Colosseum tournament, was a technical masterclass, between Jack J Bonza and AJ Istria. I have not seen any of AJ Istria’s work previously and as it turns out, I have been missing out and need to watch some more ASAP. He is an amazing worker who more than deserved his place in the tournament. But so does Jack J Bonza. I am a big fan of his singles entrance, where he chooses a member of his Red Nation to be his personal flag bearer. Both men spent the majority of this match showing off their technical prowess, attacking arms, legs, whilst still striking the hell out of each other, with Istria providing appropriate evidence as to why he is know as “Punch Drunk”. Both showed why they have a laundry list each of achievements and both staked their claim as to why they deserved to advance in the tournament, but Jack J Bonza was one step ahead getting a bridge pin that Zack Sabre Jr would be proud of.

Snapchad def. Marcus Kool, Madison Eagles and Michael Spencer.

Snapchad returned to the ring this time to compete in a fatal four way match and was greeted with a chorus of boos from the crowd. He showed he most definitely was re-aligned with SMS after his sabbatical to New Zealand to train with Bad Luck Fale, with the “Stand with SMS” T-Shirt and their signature hand over mouth taunt/gesture. Snapchad would be competing against the ‘Prince of All Wrestling’ Michael Spencer, who was donning a very impressive, royal looking cloak to go with his crown and DragonBall Universe T Shirt, Madison Eagles who came out massive cheers and bows from the crowd (much deserved of course!) and the Hooligan Marcus Kool, who I got my first look of and who rocks a pretty solid Football Hooligan gimmick. This was an awesome match, which whilst started off as one fatal four way eventually broke off into two separate battles and then just a one on one contest. Whilst Snapchad and Marcus Kool stayed in the ring, Madison and Michael Spencer took their building frustrations out on each other outside the ring, with a couple of high spots (a particularly amazing one near the bar might I add) and some fighting through the crowd for good measure. The two of them fighting all the way to the back and not returning. This allowed Marcus Kool and Snapchad to shine, putting on a solid match that was eventually won by Snapchad.

Snapchad then asked for the microphone, to which he began to talk about his time with SMS before going to New Zealand and now he was back. He declared SMS the best team in Australian professional wrestling which caught the attention of Damian Slater of the Mighty Don’t Kneel (TMDK) who made his way out to the ring to cut a promo of his own, advising that the only four letters that matter are TMDK. He stated the TMDK had room for a new member and that person had been chosen after a country wide search. We had seen the “gather your troops” posts and hourglass posts from the TMDK twitter page but who was the person they were talking about? That person was revealed to be “The Universal Swoldier” Mikey Broderick. Mikey made his way to the ring, donning a TMDK T-Shirt and got on the Mike, talking about how people like Robbie Eagles and Concrete Davidson were being put forward ahead of him and he wasn’t happy about it. So he reached out to his brothers at TMDK and they are here for war and would start with Snapchad. A beat down ensued on Snapchad and Jordan came down to the ring to consider making the save, but out of self preservation and possibly other motivations refused to do so, leaving TMDK the ability to make a huge statement by unmasking Snapchad. That’s a declaration of war of there ever was one.

Diego then called for intermission, which was a good opportunity to have a rest after that tireless action of the first portion of the show!

Matty Wahlberg retained his Beer Pong Championship and almost caused a Nudie Run in the process when he defeated a punter in Beer Pong.

Colosseum Round One Match - Paris De Silva Def. Ricky South who stepped in to replace Kellyanne

Diego announced Paris De Silva to the ring and when Paris arrived he advised that Kellyanne was unable to make it to Sydney as her flight was cancelled and she was therefore was unable to compete in the tournament. However, PWA management had found a replacement. Cue Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I Will Survive’ and Cue ‘Your Daddy’s Daddy’ Tuff Stuff Ricky South to a great pop from the crowd. These two men put on a fantastic match with some more spots that will surely go viral like the shooting star DDT from the Call to Arms show, particularly an electric chair into Paris getting up standing on Ricky South’s shoulders into a huge GIF-worthy DDT. amazing athleticism by both men! Both competitors in this match were super over with the crowd, with duelling chants providing the back ground noise to a special match. Ricky South more than deserved his opportunity in this match as he has been noticed and is loved by many Australian Wrestling fans. However Paris De Silva scored the victory to advance to the Semi Finals in the Colosseum tournament.

Juan Direction def. BABES (Matty Wahlberg and Carter Deams) w/Jax Jordan to become the number one contenders for the PWA Tag Team Championship.

Matty Wahlberg and Jax Jordan came to the ring first, wearing Slytherin Halloween costumes, with Matty Wahlberg’s complete with Draco Malloy Quidditch Jersey and Slytherin DMs pickup line. Jax Jordan who was wearing a Slytherin beanie, was told to take it off revealing his long dark hair had been dyed blonde just like a BABES member should. Matty advised he was impressed Jax went to so much effort when he wasn’t wrestling tonight and Carter Dreams returned to welcome back chants from the crowd. BABES are such an athletic and imposing team and it was awesome to see these two superstars together again. Jax took the role of Waterboy, as BABES took on Juan Direction for the number one contendership for the Tag team titles. It was a great tag match, which saw both teams putting it all on the line for the chance to face the 4 Nations for the Tag titles, but after Jax Jordan got involved in the match taking out a member of Juan Direction and Matty Wahlberg, it allowed a distracted Referee and Carter Deams to not see a switcharoo from Juan Direction which cost BABES the match. This led to an arguement between Jax, Wahlberg and Deams with the latter two turning on Jax and beating him down before cutting off some of his hair and delivering the leapfrog foot stomp double team move, before leaving the ring, with a heartbroken Jordan left in their wake.

Our main event was everybody’s favourite Rapscallion Mick Moretti, taking on the World Beater Damian Slater who was accompanied to the ring by new recruit to TMDK Mikey Broderick. Mick Moretti was very much the hometown hero, with constant chants for him throughout the entire match. We saw a great match here, a technical battle, with Moretti’s unorthodox moveset thrown in for good measure. The sly Rapscallion cleverly had Broderick removed using his own cane, evening the odds against Damian Slater. Damian Slater is an incredible talent, showing why he was chosen to represent Australia in the WWE Cruiserweight Classic and why he was chosen for this tournament. In the photo finish this match was, Moretti edged Slater to win and advance in the tournament. This sets up some very intriguing Colosseum Semi Finals at the next show at Max Watts on December 7 when Unsocial Jordan will battle Mick Moretti and Jack Bonza will take on Paris De Silva.

PWA once again have outdone themselves and congratulations all around to the Wrestlers (both home and visitors) and Crew for an incredible night of wrestling.

My brother came to his first PWA show last night and is now planning on attending the next one, after being very impressed by what the Australian Wrestling Scene has to offer. In war Australian Wrestling has declared on the rest of the world, PWA is one of the superpowers at the helm of the conquest.

If you were unable to make it due to other commitments or were crazy enough to choose not to attend, do yourself a solid and watch it as soon as it is up on PWAplay.com. Thanks again PWA and I can’t wait to see what’s in store next. See you on Friday December 7!

NB - Special shoutout to Diego and Heather who sit at ringside and react to every strike, slam and spot. I like to look over throughout the night to see their reactions and its a joy to see they are just as enthralled as the rest of us. Also love your comedic timing too Diego!

The night celebrating the 11th anniversary of PWA kicks off with Diego coming to the ring with a huge pop and chants of “DI EH GO!” The man has a great following and it’s easy to see why if you attend an event. Diego has great charisma and comic timing and is a strong hype man. He gives us a rundown of what we have to expect this evening and makes sure we are all ready to rock before our first contest.

Mikey Broderick b Matt Diamond

Mikey Broderick drawing the ire of the crowd early, asking Diego to announce him as a “PWA Original” and taunting the crowd whenever he has the upper hand in the match commanding they “Cheer for Mikey”. Between the swift, agile Matt Diamond and the solid heel work from Mikey Broderick, we had a great way to kick off the card, that got the crowd into the event. Broderick gets a win over Matt Diamond which gives him a bounce back from the loss at the previous event (Sold our Souls for Rock and Robbie) in a fatal four way, which Matt Diamond won.

Conco and the Fudge b Luchikai

This match was built up so well, just with Fudge and Tree Hugger Luchi. Luchi interfered in Fudge’s contest with Unsocial Jordan last show, due to him littering the ring with garbage. There were some great videos done by the two men in the lead up which are on PWAs Facebook page. Prior to the commencement of the show, Luchi and Kai were demanding purchase of their organic GMO free Celery, whilst Fudge, mingling with the fans was selling his swole bars. Fudge and Luchi had a fun exchange, with Luchi being chased to the back. Luchi and Kai came to the ring in Cow Onsies and their celery, with Luchi carrying a protest sign reading “not your mother, not your milk.” This match was the most fun on the card, with Conco and the Fudge’s chemistry on full display, the pop for the use of garbage and a dick flip-butt punch combo for the win. This was my first look at Luchikai in action and I certainly enjoyed their performance as well. Conco and the Fudge were gesturing the belt around their waists, so expect a tag run from this fun team.

We then got a sweep of the ring by the ring crew, which was quickly undone by Bel Pierce’s entrance which involves the contagion known as glitter. Diego’s face after the glitter hit the canvas was priceless.

Jessica Troy b Bel Pierce

We got a good contest here with Jessica Troy and Bel Pierce going one on one following then being on the opposite sides of a Tag team bout at the last show. This was a back and forth clash which saw the use of more glitter, which became part of other wrestlers attire for the remainder of the show. Despite a strong showing from Bel Pierce, a phenomenal counter into Jessica’s devastating armbar saw Bel submit and Jessica Troy show why she is one of Australia’s top competitors.

This was a superb contest with a huge amount of talent on display. Matty Wahlberg was “coaching” Jax Jordan as a part of the Babes Audition process and ultimately it would be Jax’s undoing as he copped a face full of Wahlberg’s drank allowing Unsocial Jordan to take advantage of a distracted referee and nail Jax with his camera stand for a big win. Hoffman, Spencer, Jordan and Jax put on a great contest which involved plenty of outside spots, high flying, unique offence and my favourite thing; shenanigans. Wahlberg was upset after the match being heavily critical of Jax and copping a shove for his trouble. Might be a while before Jax can win Matty Wahlberg over I think.

Bea Priestley (c) b Ricky South to retain the Defiant Women’s Championship and the heart of Wil Ospreay.

This was another entertaining contest. Where Ricky South said he wasn’t leaving empty handed tonight, so he’s either taking the belt or her man. Which got a big pop from the crowd. Bea basically replied “Fuck it, let’s put them both on the line”. Ricky was clearly getting the early edge in the match taking Bea to the limits, but as good champions do, Bea found a way to win despite taking Ricky’s best. I haven’t seen a lot of inter gender wrestling myself, but I can certainly see why it’s gaining more and more popularity. I’m certainly going to check more out after that match.

I could watch these two tag teams wrestle each other every show and not get sick of it. An incredible performance from all concerned. The Four Nations are almighty and Awesome with Jack Bonza and Mick Moretti so experienced and technically sound. Mick and Jack's chemistry and interactions with the crowd are golden. The Velocities are ferociously fast and raw. They are on the rise in a big way and deserve the praise and recognition they get. Paris Da Silva gets a lot of love and it's easy to see why when he hits a shooting star press into a DDT on Jack Bonza! The crowd leaps into the air! The cover, 1. 2. Ohhh. Adam Hoffman had the moment of the match when he spoiled a cover which would have seen the Velocities get the win and the belts. Hoffman was sent to the back and the match continues, but the opportunity was gone and the Nations stood tall in the end using their experience to capitalise on a strange situation.

We then had intermission where Matty Wahlberg returned to play Beer Pong against a member of the audience (determined by raffle). Matty won and cut a Conor McGregor inspired “apology” promo, sharing his disdain for not being on the card, despite him being advertised on the posters as he is the best looking person in PWA. He essentially told everybody to get f@$!ed (it is a black label over 18s show after all)

Every time these two Stars wrestle, it’s a solid contest and this was no difference. Despite being the heel, Eagles had plenty of crowd support. Eagles ended up submitting McKenzie to qualify for Eve’s She-1 and I hope she wins the whole thing. Her presence in a wrestling ring is so powerful so I always enjoy watching her wrestle. Shazza is super talented as well, bringing plenty of charisma with her skill set and she certainly would have gone deep in the She-1 as well, but this was not her night. I love watching these two wrestle each other and hope they do it for the belt soon!

After the match Michael Spencer stormed the ring and attacked Eagles, mocking her Curtsy bow and possibly not appreciating the fact that she is billed as the “Master of Wrestling” whilst he is the “Prince of All Wrestling”. Watch this space!

Robbie Eagles b Will Ospreay

What a match. I have never seen a better match live and I don’t know that I ever will. This match had everything you would expect and more. It was a wild ride with twists and turns, with Ospreay showing that he can sell very very well. The psychology on display in the match was next level and Robbie showed that he was willing to show no mercy to get the monkey off his back that was the Ospreay loss from last years show. If I had a rating system I would give this match maximum points and I encourage you to check it out on PWAs streaming service once it is available. Both these men are stars and this match would not have been out of place on NJPW major event show. Speaking of which, after the victory Robbie went to shake Ospreay’s hand and was given the Japan Flag on Ospreay’s tights, suggesting he had earned the right to go there. Robbie cut a great promo thanking everyone involved in making PWA what it is (including the fans) and said Mick Moretti may have started the “You’re gonna notice us” but if they haven’t noticed us now, then f$&- Em!

This was a battle of monsters and the best place to decide that was inside a steel cage. This was a brutal slobber knocker which saw Caveman Ugg busted open. Foot Stomps, cage slams and scrapings, Clubbing blows, stiff chops and powerful slams filled this match and it needed someone to take it by the scruff of the neck and that man was caveman ugg, who hit a moonsault off the top of the cage to defeat Rock and become the new PWA heavyweight champion.

The night was almost over but there was one announcement to come. Next event October 20 would be Call to Arms Coliseum which will be a tournament open to wrestler across the country to determine the best wrestler in Australia! Cant wait!

It was a fantastic night of wrestling and shows that PWA is the top promotion in NSW and one of the top organisations in Australia. In their 11 years they have gone from strength to strength and I cannot wait to see what they have in store next.

Check out the show once it is available on PWA’s pivotshare and while you’re there, check out the Sold Our Souls for Rock and Robbie event from June which was another top event.

Basically if you’re not familiar with the event, Progress Wrestling from the United Kingdom channelled their inner Nick Fury and assembled an Avengers-like Crew of Superstar Talent to come to three promotions in Australia and take on some of Australia’s best and brightest. Pro Wrestling Australia had the honour of being the Sydney/NSW promotion involved and also being the final stop on the tour. They were ready with their own line up of wrestling superstars, who were more than ready to take it to some of the best wrestlers not only in independent wrestling, but on the planet.

Firstly, I just want to state how amazing the video packages were throughout the entire show. Shout out to the person/people responsible as they were phenomenal! From the opening package, through to the Main Event of the evening, every video got the crowd very excited for what they were about to witness. But I guess the best way to tackle this recap is to go in chronological order, so let’s get into it.

So after the lights went out and we were treated to the first of our wonderful video packages, Progress Co-owner Jim Smallman made his way to the ring, whilst one of his partners in crime Glen Joseph, made his way with PWA’s own Matty Wahlberg to the commentary table. I am certainly looking forward to re-watching the event on ‘Demand Progress’ and hearing the commentary of these two gentlemen as well as Concrete Davidson, who replace Matty Wahlberg after intermission.

Jim opened the show like any other progress show, speaking and joking with the crowd and throwing out a few of his signature catch phrases, including the one rule of Progress (‘Don’t be a Dick’) and also pointing out the rest of the crowd needed to buy approximately six people drinks as they were the only ones who had been to a Progress show before. Jim poked a bit of fun at the diversity in the crowd, as some of the tickets were purchased by The Star for guest of the Casino, so it provided a really interesting contrast in the crowd, the hard core indie wrestling fans to the attendees who probably had never seen a wrestling show in their entire life. Jim’s banter and ring announcing is fantastic on the Progress shows in general, so I am so glad that he took the time to come to Australia and give us the same experience we would with a UK show. Jim also pointed out the counter that would be used for each Progress x PWA match to determine brand superiority.

The opening contest of the evening was a battle between Caveman Ugg and the WWE United Kingdom Champion, the Bruiserweight Pete Dunne. This match was a real power contest, with both men trying to impose their will on the other, with the some signature joint manipulation from the Bruiserweight and the signature strength of Ugg. Like the match, the crowd was very back and forth on this match, with Bruiserweight chants being equalled with Ugg ones. Ugg did all he could to put Dunne away, but unfortunately met his Bitter End as Pete Dunne hit his signature finisher and picked up the win.

Highlights:

1. Pedigree from Pete Dunne for a near fall.

2. Fantastic crowd interaction between Pete Dunne and the show crowd with the best moment available on Pete Dunne’s social media page.

3. Pete Dunne laughing at Ugg’s look to only have the smirk removed from his face once the match commenced.

The second match of the evening was a PWA match between four of the promotions great tag teams, contested under Lucha Libre Rules. Basically what is meant by this is as follows (taken from Wikipedia):

“when the legal wrestler of a team touches the floor outside the ring, a teammate may enter the ring to take his place as the legal competitor. As the legal wrestler can step to the floor willingly, there is essentially no need for an actual tag to a teammate to bring him into a match.”

Some of the crowd around me was a little confused with the rules of the match and why the referee wasn’t keeping track of the legal combatants, however they most likely were not aware of the Lucha Libre rules, hence the confusion. It was a fast paced, frenetic contest, which saw all Wrestlers get a taste of the action which led to an entertaining clash. All teams performed strongly, but when the dust settled however, it was the Velocities who picked up an important win in their quest for Tag team glory.

Highlights:

1. Entrances – Some phenomenal wrestling entrances from all four teams, with special mention of Concrete Davidsons’s bike, which was used by Tyler Bate in some backstage shenanigans.

2. Crowd member sitting behind me, losing his mind about how “Jacked” Madison Eagles was. Many a profanity was used by them, but I understand as she looked incredible and could legit kick any of those guys rear ends into oblivion.

3. Juan Direction – Everything about these guys was incredible and captured the attention of everyone, including Jim Smallman and Glen Joseph. Their entrance was absolutely epic, as was their performance.

The Velocities def Conco and the Fudge, Four Nations (Madison Eagles and Adam Hoffman) and Juan Direction.

In the promotional video for this match, ‘Tuff Stuff’ Ricky South said to Jimmy Havoc “Let’s have some fun” and it was fun watching this match from my end, but I imagine this was hardly the case for the two competitors. Jimmy Havoc entered first, making a beeline for the underneath of the ring, removing a large quantity of chairs and a staple gun, showing the crowd he was more than willing to give Ricky South what he asked for. Jimmy then proceeded to stare at the stage, awaiting the entrance of ‘Tuff Stuff’. Ricky South came out to the Gloria Gaynor smash “I Will Survive” and honestly, I just wanted that for the guy. He even paid tribute to his own insanity for requesting this match with an “Aladdin Sane” David Bowie lightning bolt on his face. The contest was brutal, with both men enduring significant punishment. Jimmy Havoc received Staples in the head whilst Ricky South was Death Valley Driven into a collection of chairs. Chairs were thrown and swung, eyes were poked, papercuts of death were dealt and we even saw the emergence of a pride flag table. Ultimately the Pride table would be the deciding factor in the contest, with Jimmy Havoc on the receiving end of an incredible top rope piledriver through the table to end the match and defeat Jimmy Havoc at his own game.

3. Jimmy placed an incapacitated Ricky South on a chair on the outside of the ring and proceeded to run clockwise around the ring which looked like we were going to see a running move, however Jimmy stopped in front of ‘Tuff Stuff’ and poked him in the eyes.

Michael Spencer interrupted Jim Smallman and basically demanded a match as he is the Prince of Wrestling. We then were graced with the presence of several PWA roster members and former Progress Tag team champion ‘Battle Tested’ Rob Lynch! This match had some great spots including Rob Lynch Spear, but ultimately a crafty Michael Spencer eliminated the final competitor to win the battle royale and further establish himself on the PWA roster.

Highlights:

Michael Spencer’s Frieza inspired attire. The crowd picked up on it too and had some fun banter with him.

PWA’s great talent on display! I’m glad PWA did this match and allowed more of the roster to get a showing on this monumental card as PWA has plenty of talent!

‘Battle Tested’ Rob Lynch! Was awesome to see him on this card and he was excellent in the battle royale

This had the best video package of the lot in my mind. Short and sweet. If you have not seen it, google it as it is fantastic. Jack Bonza and Mick Moretti came to the ring first to their awesome version of 7 Nation Army. But in the battle of the entrances Moustache Mountain picked up the win. Trent Seven and Tyler Bate came out in their hotel dressing gowns, each going to either side of the stage and waving to each other. They then proceeded to wave and greet all of the fans, before rolling into the ring and Seven iconically throwing the towel against the ring. This match had it all, great spots and even better humour. It was a fun match and these two teams were great together, feeding off each other which led to a thoroughly enjoyable match. PWA would have been very happy with the outcome, with the 4 Nations picking up the win and cranking their music up loud in celebration of their huge win!

We were spoilt even more when we received a Progress Women’s Championship title defence, when Toni Storm took on the challenging Jessica Troy, who believed she would be the woman to halt Toni Storm’s reign of dominance. Jessica put up a valiant effort, even locking in her signature Submission, but in the end Toni Storm was able to secure the win in Sydney and continue her dominance as one of the best wrestlers on the planet.

Highlights:

Having Toni Storm return to Australia after establishing herself as one of the best wrestlers going today.

Her taking on the very challenging Jessica Troy, who represents Australia very well on the global stage.

SMS - Unsocial Jordan and Snapchad made relatively quick work of the Babes - Carter Dreams and Matty Walhberg hitting a double team on Carter Dreams for the win and retaining their tag team titles in a dominant victory.

Highlights:

Cheerleaders and Confetti Cannons: The Babes had a hell of an entrance, complete with Cheerleaders, Harley Wonderland and Confetti Cannons! What more could you ask for!

SMS - Unsocial Jordan and Snapchad are a superb tag team and if they were going to pick a particular moment to show that in a dominant way, they chose the right event. I personally love their ‘Stand With SMS’ gimmick, it has an ‘Anonymous’/ V for Vendetta feel. It is awesome. Serious Heel Heat too!

A PWA title defence on the card. It was great to see the PWA tag team titles defended on the card, considering no other PWA titles would be defended that evening and there had already been a Progress title defence on the card.

With the scores locked at 2 a piece it was down to the main event of the evening to separate the two organisations and the best was certainly save until last. Progress World Champion Travis Banks took on PWA Heavyweight Champion Robbie Eagles in a match for the ages. The match was fast paced, high energy and had the crowd going the whole time. The match see sawed back and forth and both men threw everything in their repertoire at each other in an attempt to get the win. Banks would eventually break the deadlock with a super Kiwi Crusher off of the top rope followed up with the Lion’s Clutch to pick up the submission win in an incredible contest that has to be seen to be believed.

Highlights:

The Whole Match…when it comes out on demand, WATCH IT!

Jim Smallman gave his endorsement of Robbie Eagles at the end of the show, meaning we might see him appear in the UK sooner rather than later. Jim Smallman thanked everyone for supporting Progress and reminded that crowd the importance of supporting their local promotion.

All in all it was an incredible show of which my review did not do it justice. When it comes out on PWA on Demand or Demand Progress I will be definitely be firing it up again as it was an amazing show and I feel so privileged to have been there!